


Beacon Life

by Zummerz36



Series: Beacon Life [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon character original backstory, Dozens of original characters, F/M, OCs with preexisting connections to cannon characters, Original Settings, creative combat, original Creatures of Grimm, sibling original characters, various story themes, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 19:46:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 238,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9008560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zummerz36/pseuds/Zummerz36
Summary: Everyone knows what happens during the main canon series but what happens in between those episodes and seasons. Join Ruby and the girls as they meet some more of their professors, and befriend professional huntsmen and huntresses as they do everything from goofing off like ordinary students to dealing with new threats. They'll travel to new towns and cities from Vale, to Vacuo, to even Atlas as they learn more about the colorful and hazardous world that is Remnant.





	1. Prolog This will be the Day, This Will be Fun

**Author's Note:**

> Please be kind with the earlier chapters. My writing skill has been evolving and improving over the course of this story so the later chapters will be longer, more complex, and overall better. 
> 
> The following Fanfiction make the following assumptions  
> \- There are more people other than Ruby and her mother with silver eyes  
> \- More people have glyph based semblances other than the Shnee family  
> \- Animals have Semblances  
> \- Faunus can be based on non-mammals  
> \- A weapon’s conversions do not have to conform to the laws of Volume (Coco logic)  
> \- Various assumptions about the origins of people with silver eyes  
> \- Various assumptions about Remnant history  
> \- Various assumptions about Salem  
> \- Various assumptions about Dust

       Ozpin sat at his desk, his elbows on the desk with his fingers interlocked. Across from him sat a young man. He wore a green hooded jacket and held a scroll in his hand. On the scroll played the video of Ruby Rose as she fought with Roman Torchwick and his goons outside Dust Till Dawn. They sat in silence, the only sound in the spacious office was of the large gears cranking.

       The video ended, the young man put the scroll down on Ozpin’s desk and leaned back in his seat, crossed his leg, and put his fingers to the bridge of his nose under his glasses. “Well?” Ozpin asked. The mystery man snickered a bit and answered, “She’s good, the old crow has taught her well.” 

       The windows began to vibrate as the transports of new students began to arrive. The mysterious man stood up and walked over to the windows and pulled out some binoculars. He watched as the students disembarked. Ozpin walked up next to him, ever present coffee mug in hand, “Of course, I am aware of you prior relationship with her and her sister.” “Yeah, and?” the mystery man asked with a ‘so what’ attitude. “You are expected to show no bias towards either of them. At least not in class,” Ozpin answers. The mysterious man scoffed at the accusation, “Don’t worry Oz for now, they’re fresh meat like all the others,” he said with a smirk on his face behind the binoculars. There was the sound of an explosion from the courtyard. Ruby had just blown herself up from Weiss’s dust. The young man laughed. “Oh yeah, this year’s gonna be fun,” he said as spark of electricity flashed in his eye. 


	2. Old Neighbors, New Teachers, Eternal Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the members of team RWBY start their first week at Beacon they are of to attend their first combat class. However they are about to meet one of the most bizarre teachers, one that they'll find strange enough at first but come to like quiet easily. A teacher who is also going to show them they have a lot to learn and oh so many people to meet. Class is in session.

 

                It was Friday of their first week at Beacon and team RWBY was tired after a long day of boring classes. However they still had one more class and Ruby was really looking forward to it, Combat class. Everyone was in the locker room changing into their combat outfits and getting their weapons. Hyperactive as ever, Ruby couldn’t sit still. “Oh, I can’t wait!” she squealed trying desperately to contain herself.

                “Why are you so hyped? It’s just combat class,” Weiss scoffed. “Because we finally have a class that doesn’t involve Professor Port’s crazy stories or struggling to keep up with Professor Oobleck,” she answered. “Doctor!” they all heard Oobleck yell from up the hall as if he was getting father away. They all popped their heads out the door into the hallway, one over the other in their order of their letters Ruby at the bottom and Yang at the top and could see a floating trail of dust from Dr. Oobleck rushing down the hall. They all looked at each other in confusion as they went back in the locker room.

                They finished changing and Joined teams JNPR and CRDL in the combat class room. It was a large circular room, about 150 feet in diameter with a high glass dome roof and a raised walkway around it. All the students stood around twiddling their thumbs as they waited for their teacher. Jaune slid up next to Ruby to talk, “hey, you heard anything about this teacher?” Ruby shook her head as she answered, “Not much, all I heard is that he was some prodigy they nicknamed the ‘Storm Reaper’.” “Why do they call him that?” he asked. “It’s because he strikes like lightning, fast, hard, and relentlessly, plus they say he can be pretty disturbing like a grim reaper.”

                Just as she finished, the double doors behind them flew open with a powerful kick. A young man who couldn’t have been more than 25 years old and about 6 foot 2 walked into the room with his hands in his pockets, through the group of students and stood in front of the class. He wore a green jacket with a hood up with black shoulder pads and trim over a black shirt. His pants were black with large pockets and a silver wallet chain hanging from belt to his pocket, black combat boots, and grey elbow and knee pads. On his back there was an emblem of the silhouette of the grim reaper with lightning trailing behind it. With the hood up no one could get a good look at his face. All they could see was his unshaven jaw and an emotionless look. On his back was an interesting wide blade sword and on his hips were some sort of submachine guns.

                The students were awestruck by his brazen entrance and then he spoke, his voice sounded rough and deep, “Ok, I’ll will be you instructor for your time here at Beacon. My name is not important, what is important is that I make sure your combat abilities if they don’t already meet Beacon expectations, do by the end of the year.” He spat out a piece of gum he was chewing on and Velvet who had volunteered as his teaching assistant, brought him a scroll and he flipped through his student roster.

                Cardin showed a cocky smirk and said, “Ha, looks like the bunny found a job even she can do!” Blake frowned and close a fist trying to contain her anger. With the flick of his wrist, a throwing knife dropped out of the teacher’s sleeve and into his hand which he quickly threw at the wall with in an inch of Cardin’s head, all without even looking up from his scroll. He handed Velvet back the scroll, thanked her, and dismissed her. He then walked straight up to Cardin, got in his face and proceeded to scold him loudly so everyone could hear but with a cold and emotionless tone, “I am only going to say this once. I do not condone discrimination of any kind in my class or in this school. I don’t care if you’re a boy or a girl, rich or poor, or especially human or faunus. I cannot and will not tolerate it. So let me be clear, if I see you or anyone picking on, bullying, or discriminating against anyone.” He held of his finger and wagged his finger at him with every syllable as he spoke softly, “I-will-make-you-pay.” Cardin was frozen, afraid to move as the teacher walked back to the front of the class. “What are you a faunus or something?” Sky demanded. The teacher threw another knife near Sky’s head to shut him up. However, the teacher still answered him, “No, but I’m dating one and I don’t appreciate you insulting the race of the woman I care for.”

                “Ok today I will test each of you individual combat abilities,” He said as he walked towards the wall and gave it a kick. Something clicked and the wall panels spun around revealing racks of various weapons and he finished his sentence, “using your same weapon.” The students were dumbfounded. “Arc, front and center,” The teacher said shocking everyone back to their senses. Jaune darted to the front and stood at attention. “Finally, a student that respects authority. Draw,” the teacher said. Jaune was confused. “Draw your weapon kid,” he clarified with a hint of annoyance. Jaune drew his sword and shield and the teacher examined it. “A sword and shield, old school but effective in the right hands,” the teacher said as he eyed the old fashion construction. When he was done he drew the sword from his back and pressed a button on the handle. The sword began to make clicking sounds and the blade slide up the handle and unfolded along the blade’s edge to form a shield. He then drew one of his submachine guns and it converted to a short sword and then took a battle stance.

                Jaune took a sloppy stance. The teacher took deep breath and muttered under his breathe, “Let the journey began.” “Start!” he yelled out and Jaune charged. The teacher ducked low and blocked Jaune’s first slash with his shield above him. He slid under Jaune, popped up behind him, and bum rushed him with his shield. Jaune hit the ground with the teach holding his shield to his back and put his sword to his throat. “Sloppy, but I could see how determined you are in your eyes. You’re going to need a lot of work but I look forward to the challenge,” the teacher said as he got off of him.

                The teacher collapsed his weapons and took a scroll from Velvet. He made a few notes and looked at his watch. “Team CDNL, step forward.” Cardin and his goons stepped up. “It appears Ozpin scheduled more students than I planned for so I’ll do your whole team at once,” he explained as he gave his scroll back to Velvet. “Alright teach, it’s your funeral,” Cardin scoffed as he and his team members drew their weapons. The teacher smiled. There was a flash of lightning as rain started to fall on the glass dome, when the flash was done the teacher was on the far side of the arena. As he drew his sword he hit a switch and dropped it to the ground. It opened like it had for the shield form but it floated a few inches off the ground. He stepped up on to the hover board and drew his submachine guns.

                “Start!” he yelled and his back heel clicked the board’s accelerator. He charged them at top speed with a cloud of dust behind him. He fired a volley of shots at them. Russel and Sky managed to dive out of the way and Cardin used Dove as a human shield knocking the patsy out. The teacher was not impressed and converted his guns to swords. As he passed between them he slashed and took out Sky. As he reached the far wall, he kicked down on the back and popped up so his board was up against the wall and pushed off the wall, doing a flip so the board faced back towards the still standing Cardin and Russel. He gunned the accelerator as he connected his guns into a short shotgun. As he reached them he drove the barrel into Russel’s chest and fired as he was driven to the ground. Cardin tried to swing his mace at the teacher but the hooded man used the shotgun still in Russel’s chest as a pivot point to swing around and slam the end of the board into Cardin’s stomach. When Cardin came out of his daze, the teacher was standing with his foot on Cardin’s chest, his sword over his shoulder, and his shotgun muzzle on Cardin’s nose.

                The teacher made a sound of disgust and said, “Disgraceful.” He took his foot off Cardin and put his weapons away. As he looked at the class he asked, “Who can tell me what this pompous fool did wrong. What did he do that is inexcusable under any circumstance, even if it gets the job done?” “He didn’t stabilize his stance,” Weiss tried. “No!” “He didn’t swing hard enough!” Nora cheered. “Not even close.” “He didn’t think before striking?” Pyrrha ventured. “Warmer.” “He purposefully sacrifice his teammates to ensure his own victory,” Ruby answered. The teacher was a half second from shooting her down when he stopped and pointed at her. “Precisely. Lesson one at Beacon. Never sacrifice your friends. The defense of human life I the primary mission of a huntsman or Huntress.” He gave Cardin a light kick in the ribs making the bully cringe. “This disgusting piece of work not only did it once but twice.” The class was confused. “Wait I get using his team mate as a shield but what was the other time?” Yang ask. Their teacher explained, “Recall when Cardin tried to swing his mace down on top of me. He had an injured teammate below me. If he had struck, he may have weakened me but he would have most likely mortally wounded his teammate even further.” The teacher made some notes and moved on.

                The teacher kicked Cardin and his band of fools out so he didn’t to look at them. Next came Nora and Ren. Nora was far too enthusiastic and practically took herself out when she accidently slammed face first into the hammer the teacher had borrowed from the weapons rack. Ren took him a little longer than some of the others but went down all the same.

                “Pyrrha Nikkos,” the teacher said and she stepped forward weapons drawn. Like with Jaune the teacher used a sword and shield set up. The teacher charge first this time, stabbing at Pyrrha. She tried to use her semblance to change the trajectory of the blade but there was a quick glow from under the teacher’s hood and her semblance didn’t work. She just managed to deflect it with her sword but the teacher was ready. His shield rotated on a pivot attached to his arm so the pointed end faced down towards his hand and he pulled the trigger. A burst of auto rifle rounds went off at the bottom of the shield accelerating it to stab Pyrrha in the chest. With that it was done. “How?” Pyrrha questioned. “You don’t show off your polarity semblance and only use it to alter your foe’s moves to make them easier to deal with. However, you have become dependent on it so when it didn’t work you left yourself open,” the teacher answered as he made some notes. “But why didn’t it work?” She demanded. The teacher raised his hand which had a plated fingerless glove on it like the other showing her the back of it. A small green glyph similar to Weiss’s appeared but the pattern was different. “You’re not the only one who can manipulate magnetic fields,” He said as he turned back to the class.

                “Schnee.” Weiss and the teacher stood apart from each other. He had a rapier just like Weiss. They slowly circled each other, each sizing the other up. Then Weiss moved. She jumped back and drew a glyph that fired several ice missiles at him. He used his rapier to deflect each shot around him. She drew a glyph on the wall behind her and used it to spring forward at him to stab at him. There was another flash of lightning and then he had moved across the room. Weiss made another glyph to spring at him again but then he did what she never expected. He drew several of his own glyphs and the shot bolts of lightning. She drew a shield and just managed to survive the salvo. He then drew several more glyphs and dozens of small birds made of electricity flew at her. She drew a shielding glyph but the lightning birds changed trajectory and flew around the shield. As she was distracted he charged and put the point of the rapier an inch from her throat.

                “Same problem as Nikkos. You’re too dependent on your semblance,” he said as he backed off. Weiss was awestruck. “Wait you have glyphs?” she demanded to know. “The Schnee family and their ice glyphs aren’t the only kind of glyphs. I have storm glyphs, and I’ve seen fire, water, rock, air, and several other kinds of glyphs,” he explained as he made some notes.

                Weiss walked back to the rest of her team. “He’s impressive,” Blake said. “Something seems familiar about him,” Ruby said. Yang was curious, “What do you mean sis? I don’t think we know anyone that brazen.” Ruby cocked her head to the side and squinted at the teacher as she said, “It’s not the personality. It’s how he fights. The way he moves, how he strikes, the lightning, not to mention the emblem on his back.” Yang looked at his back and got a better look at his emblem. As they continued to think the next student was called.

                “Belladonna, Blake.” Blake stepped forward and took out her sword. The teacher drew his guns and converted them to sword mode. He flipped the one in his left hand into a backhanded grip and took up a combat stance. “Begin!” Blake charged and slashed at him. He side stepped to the right and tried to stabbed back at her with his backhanded blade. But Blake used her semblance and dodged using a shadow clone to take the hit. She attempted to cleave back with her scabbard, but before she could there was another flash of lightning and he was behind her with one blade to her neck and a gun barrel in the small of her back. “Bang and slash, I have just paralyzed you from the waist down and took you head off,” he said with confidence but then he realized it was another shadow clone. The real Blake was several yards away and had just thrown her sword in its hook form attached to her ribbon. The teacher just managed to duck backwards as the weapon came within a quarter inch of his nose. He planted a hand on the ground and kick up into a move similar to and break dancing air flare. He purposefully caught his foot on the ribbon wrapping it around his foot so Blake lost control of her weapon. He grabbed ribbon and pulled hard. Since the ribbon was wrapped around Blake’s arm she was pulled with it and she flew at him. He slashed her as she approached him and she was done. Blake shook herself from her daze and the teacher was standing over her, offering his hand to help her up and handed her sword to her. “Excellent reflexes, quick decisive strikes specifically targeted at weak points, and an inventive use of the ribbon. You just need a plan for when someone gets hold of the ribbon,” He said.

                “Xialong you’re up,” he said as he rolled back his sleeves to reveal forearm guards and threw back his elbows causing them to unpack into a pair of silver shotgun gauntlets with black and green detail and several slots that they assumed were for blades of some sort at the knuckles and elbows. They stood across from each other and simultaneously loaded their chambers. Yang assumed more of an MMA stance while the Teacher’s was more of a boxer’s. Yang took the first swing. The teacher ducks to the side and then took a few jabs finishing with a shotgun blast. He then rolled onto his hands and spun around delivering several kicks that she blocked with her forearms and then spun back on to his feet to deliver a right hook under her guard to break her defense and then delivered a double shotgun blast punch. Yang flew back against the wall but wasn’t done for yet. The teacher flew back some and landed on his feet. Yang was angry. She voided her ammo and whipped her long range ammo into place. As she threw back her elbow’s to load the chamber her eyes went red and her hair started flaming. The teacher smiled and whispered under his breath, “She’s getting fired up. Well then I guess I’ll just have to get charged up too.” Yang started firing a volley of shots at him. He put his hand out and a large glyph materialized. All the shots dispersed against the glyph and electricity arced from it to the teacher’s hand. Yang was dumbfounded but shook it off and fired some shots behind her to propel herself at him. He stomped behind him and a glyph formed lightning flew out from him and his body glowed. He took a step and then accelerated from zero to a hundred in a microsecond. He and Yang meet in the middle of the arena and their fists impacted with each other. There was a major shockwave and dust flew everywhere. When it cleared Yang was slammed into the ground in a small crater. It turned out the teacher had swung himself under and around Yang as her momentum kept her going and he had blasted her in the back.

                 He offered her a hand which she gladly accepted. “Excellent skills, your old man would be proud. But you need to work on that temper. Ay Firecracker?” He asked as Yang went back to the others. A soon as she heard him call her Firecracker she stopped dead. “No, it can’t be him. Can it?” went through her mind as she joined the others. “What’s wrong Yang?” Ruby asked concerned about the pensive look on Yang’s face. “He called me Firecracker,” she answered. Now Ruby was confused, “But Uncle Qrow is the only one that calls you that.” “Well what about _him_?” Yang pondered out loud. Ruby couldn’t believe it, “No it couldn’t be. We haven’t seen him in forever.” They looked over at the teacher who was making notes on his scroll.

                 “Rose! Last one of the day!” the teacher yelled to the young scythe wielder. Ruby stood across from the teacher, this strange teacher that seemed so familiar and knew Yang’s nickname that very few people knew, a man who fighting style that she kept feeling that she knew. Ruby drew Crescent Rose and unfolded it into full scythe mode. However, the teacher drew his broad sword instead of going over to the weapons rack for the scythe that hung on it, “Let’s see just what Qrow has taught you.” Ruby was stunned, this man knew Qrow? Before Ruby could question it he said something that she never expected, “well, let’s bring the storm shall we _Rosebud_?”

                  Rosebud, there may be multiple people who called Yang Firecracker, but there was only one person who called Ruby Rosebud. Now she absolutely had to know if it was him. She fired a shell to accelerate and slashed at him. He redirected the slash but, let the tip of the scythe sheer off the hood from his jacket. Ruby spun to a skidding halt. The teacher’s head was down so she couldn’t see him. She pointed at him and started demanding answers, “Who are you? Why are you so familiar to me? How do you know that nickname? How do you know my uncle Qrow?”

                 The teacher started to snicker which blew up to a full blown laugh. He began to answer her questions but his voice had changed, it had become smoother and a little higher, “I’m familiar because I’ve known you all your life. I know that nickname because I gave it to you and I know Qrow because he taught me to use this!” He clicked his sword and it changed. The handle extended into a pole and the blade extended and bent into a sickle blade with a saw tooth top edge as the hand guard that doubled as the ammo clip swung out on the back end of the blade as a counter weight. When it was done, the sword had become a large powerful scythe. He raised his head and she could see he had spiky messy blonde hair and extended a pit lower along the back of his neck similar to Jaune’s but with a wide cowlick towards the bottom. “As for who I am, well,” He spun around on his heels and she saw his face. He had blue eyes, black glasses with no bottom rims, white skin and the smuggest smirk in Remnant. It was _him_ , Matt Vert the young man she and Yang hadn’t seen in years.

                 “Let’s go!” he yelled as a glyph formed on his back and so many questions were answered. He took a step, there was the sound of a thunder crack, and in an instant he had turned into a bolt of lightning. Ruby dashed out of the way in a cloud of rose petals as Matt rematerialized and slashed at her. He drew a glyph and bounced off it. Ruby landed against the side of the dome and used she speed to run along the inside of the dome. Matt bolted up as lightning but instead of running along it he stuck to it by magnetizing his feet to the metal framework of the dome. He swung his scythe around to aim at her and he fired a volley of rounds just missing her. She ran up and took a swing that he just managed to block but was thrown back down to the ground. He managed to land on his feet. She jumped and slashed down at him as he back flipped out of the way. Her scythe’s tip buried in the ground from her last strike she started firing at him. He started to spinning on his feet and with each turn he cut a round in half. A glyph formed on Matt’s scythe and the blade was engulfed in lightning. He slashed and a wave of electricity flew out at Ruby. She spun her scythe in front of her to block the brunt of the wave but she was still sent flying. As she flew back, Matt bolted around her to where she was flying to. But before he could finish her, she dug her scythe into the ground and used her grip as an axis to cartwheel up onto the shaft. He charged at her and she swung around to give him a double kick but he used a glyph to bounce into a new trajectory. Ruby locked her feet into the back hook on Crescent Rose and fired. She went flying at him like a razor sharp wheel and he deflected her upwards.  As she spun around and the muzzle was facing up, she fired again and flew strait back down at Matt. She landed on her feet and brought her scythe around and fired for extra power. He barely managed to bolt out of the way. When he materialized he realized she had cut a long slit in his jacket.

                 All he did was chuckle and charged her. She charged back they passed within inches of each other only to get their blades caught. They both lost their footing and landed on the backs. They sat up, looked at each other and smiled. They then both dove for their scythes. They got to their feet and took defensive possessions. Of course then they realized each of them had grabbed the other’s scythe. They laughed as they traded weapons. Once they had calmed down Matt made his move. They started locking blades over and over. They took turns slashing at the other who would then block. They would spend a few seconds trying to gain leverage over the other, then one would back of and relock.

                 As the two locked blades Professor Ozpin walked in, ever present coffee mug in hand. He looked at the two locked in combat. “Well this looks intense,” He observed. His presence startled the other students who had been too focused on the fight to notice him enter. “Professor Ozpin! What are you doing here?” asked a startled Pyrrha. Ozpin gestured towards Ruby and Matt, “I’m fascinated to see who wins between these two.” “What’s so interesting about these two fighting?” asked Blake. Just then Yang finally got a good look at her teacher and went wide eyed when she realized who he was. “Holy Dust it’s him!” she yelled with a smile on her face. “Who?! Who is he?!” the other students demanded to know. “Well he’s-,” just as Yang was about to answer, one of Matt’s throwing knives struck the wall between her and the others. On the blade the words ‘stow it firecracker’. Ozpin came up behind her and answered for her. “Has Ruby told you about her Uncle Qrow?” “He’s the Huntsman that taught her how to use her scythe right?” Blake ventured. Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, “exactly. You see Professor Vert is a huntsman prodigy like Ruby. He was also trained to use his scythe by Qrow.”

                 Matt and Ruby kept locking blades. “Looks like the old crow taught you well,” Matt said as there blades locked. He pushed her off and they locked again. “Qrow is one heck of teacher,” she answered as she redirected him. She spun around and they relocked. “You know you’ve pretty much destroyed my jacket?” he jabbed and relocked. “So?” she said and popped back. He bolted up to her and locked with her again. He got leverage over her and started forcing her down as he said, “It’s my favorite Jacket.” She forced him back and started pushing down on him. “So I’ll buy you a new one.” He gave a hard push and threw her back. “Eh, don’t worry about it. I got a dozen more,” he assured her. He looked at his watch and raised his eyebrows. “Well it looks like we’re almost out of time. Well time to finish this,” He said. Ruby smiled as she said, “I couldn’t agree more.” Quickly she ejected her magazine and put in her magazine of high powered gravity dust rounds.

                She fired and flew at him, cocking her blade in an outward position and fired again putting her in to a gyroscope like spin towards Matt. Matt made a huge glyph at his feet and lightning began to surge from his body. He launched at Ruby. They were about to hit each other Matt did the impossible. He converted to a bolt of lightning and snaked around behind her to materialize. He then grabbed at the shoulder of his jacket and tore it away. As soon as the jacket was gone they could see the ace in the hole. Under his jacket he had a group of harness straps holding four small blades under each arm. Lightning arced off his finger tips and connected to the handles of the gun blades. They unfolded and flew out from under his arms. They swarmed at Ruby, firing off laser shots in various formations. Ruby got blasted around a bit before the blades slammed into her from above in a single mass like a hammer. She slammed into the ground forming a crater. She was defeated. Ozpin smiled, “Well it appears the student is yet to become the teacher of the student of the teacher.” Ozpin took another sip of his coffee and left.

                It took her a minute but Ruby eventually came out of her daze. As she came to her senses she could see Matt sitting on the edge of her crater smiling at her. All Ruby could do was lightly laugh to herself, “Heh, you cheated.” The rest of team RWBY and team JNPR rushed over. “Ruby are you alright?” Yang asked ash she slid down into the crater. “Ruby flipped to her feet as if the whole fight never happened and pointed at Matt as she pointed at Matt and accused him, “You cheated! You said you were only going to fight use using our own weapons. Well except for Cardin and his goons.” Matt just chuckled, “Lessons two. Always assume that your opponent is willing to play dirty. The Creatures of Grimm are animals with no idea what morals are and criminals will do anything to keep their freedom.”

                With that Matt looked up as the bell rang. He stood up and helped pull Ruby out of the crater. “Alright, class dismissed,” He said as he dusted himself off. The students began to leave when, “Rose! Tia Yang! Stay.” Matt Yelled to them. His tone was stern. Were they in trouble? The members of team RWBY looked at each other. Yang and Ruby smiled, “Don’t worry. We’ll meet you back at the dorms,” Yang told Weiss and Blake. They smile back and left. Ruby and Yang walked back and stood in front of Matt, he had a stern look on his face. Ruby was about to say something when Matt held up a finger to silence her. He walked over to the door and popped his head out. After he was sure that Weiss and Blake had gone he walked back in front of the two girls.

                Weiss and Blake started walking back to the dorms when Blake gave a sigh of regret. “What is it?” Weiss asked. “I just don’t think we should have left. If they’re getting scolded we should stand with them.” Blake explained. “You’re right. We win as a team, we lose as a team, and we get yelled at as a team,” Weiss agreed as they turned back.

                Matt walk back to Ruby and Yang and let out a sigh as he relaxed and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Alright,” he said and crossed his arms. “Let me have it.” Ruby and Yang looked at each other, and deviously smiled as they looked back at Matt. Then in an instant they lunged straight at him in an attempt to playfully tackle him, but he wasn’t going to make it easy. He quickly bolted a few feet out of the way and said, “Nice try.” They tried again and again he bolted out of the way say, “not quite.” They tried yet again and again he bolted away. “Are you even trying?” This continued three more attempts before he bolted to the ceiling where he magnetized to it. “You’re cheating again!” Yang yelled up to him as she accusingly pointed at him. He laughed loudly and yelled back, “As you teacher I must advises you to refer to your notes on _lesson 2_!”

                Weiss and Blake came back to the room and placed their ears to the door to hear Matt’s last sentence. “Dang it, come on Matt!” Yang yelled up to him. Weiss and Blake quietly slipped their heads halfway in the door to see what was going on. Yang and Ruby were playing hard ball now. Ruby used her speed semblance to run up the side of the dome to try to get him. He dodged down to the ground as Yang fired her gauntlets behind her to accelerate at him but again he dodged.

                This continued a few more attempts to get him he threw them a bone. He pretended to stop to yawn and they jumped straight at him hands first and with a huff he went down in a plume of dust. When the dust cleared Yang and Ruby were lying on their stomachs on Matt’s back. They all looked at each other a laughed. “What’s the heck is going on?!” Weiss yelled startling the three of them. They just laughed more as the got off Matt. Matt walked over to a wall and kicked it. The panel spun around and there was another one of Matt’s jacket. “Let’s walk and talk,” he said as he put on the fresh jacket.

                They started walking back to the dorms, with Matt having his arms over Yang and Ruby’s shoulders laughing with them. “So does someone want to explain this?” Blake asked as she gestured towards Matt the two sisters. The three calmed down. “I’ve known these girls all their lives,” Matt said as he gave them each a playful noogie and chuckled. Blake and Weiss were still confused. “So blonde hair and eccentric personality, your there dad right?” Blake asked.  Matt and the sisters burst into laughter. “Hey I may be eccentric, but there is no one in all of Remnant that can be as eccentric as Tiayang Xia Long. I mean how old do you think I am?” Matt Laughed. Matt sighed and explained, “I grew up next door to them in our home town. They’re practically my sisters.”

                “Oh it’s so good to see you again!” Ruby said as she darted up onto Matt’s back like a koala with a burst of rose petals and he had to steady himself. “Yeah we haven’t heard from you in almost a year. Last we time we saw each other you said you had some big long term job?” Yang inquired. “Yeah, this is it. I got the job about a year after graduation,” he answered.

                 They kept walking and reminiscing as they reached the dorms, and then Blake smelled something. “Do you guys smell that?” The others sniffed the air. “Yeah it smells like flowers,” Weiss answered. “I smell vanilla,” Yang said. “No its fruit,” Ruby interjected. Matt sniffed the air. He took a second to process and then his eyes went wide, “Oh no, not again.” With that he bolted down the hall, his lightning form turning the corner. Ruby who had still been riding on his back like a koala fell on her backside as he bolted away. The girls ran as fast as they could to keep up with him. When they finally caught up, he was standing in front of a door a little ways up the hall from their own.

                 Matt had one of his arms crossed over his chest and his forehead in his other hand as if he was annoyed as he said, “Dang it Ringo, not again.” When they looked at the door, they saw what looked like roots and vines growing out from between the cracks around the door and grew out along the walls. “Matt what’s this room? What’s with the roots?” Ruby asked. He looked at them surprised they didn’t know. As he gestured to the door he said, “You’re kidding me right? You’ve been here a week and you still haven’t met Ringo?” They were all confused. Matt sighed, “She’s your other dorm advisers.” “Wait so who is the other one?” Blake asked. Matt pointed at himself with his thumb, “Me. Standard policy is to have one male and one female dorm adviser and the best dorm adviser is closer to the age of the student body.” “So then what’s with the roots?” Weiss asked.

                 Matt took the door knob and pulled, it didn’t budge. He huffed, took the knob with both hands and braced himself against the wall. He pulled with all his might and the door began to open slowly with a tearing sound. As the door opened, the girls could see that the roots had fused into the door and were ripping as it opened. As the last of the plants snapped from the door and it flew open as Matt lost his grip and sent himself flying into the wall behind him with a thud. As he got up and dusted himself off, the girls tried to look in the room only to see a wall of plant growth stood just behind the door. “What the dust?!” Weiss asked confused.

                 Matt sighed as if he was slightly annoyed and explained, “Ringo’s semblance allows her to accelerate and control the growth of various plants. She can throw out a handful of seeds and turn them into a grove of twenty foot trees at the snap of a finger.” “So what, She barricaded herself in her room?” Blake asked. Matt just chuckled a bit, “Well that crazing squirrel of mine may have done that the last time I forgot date night, but this level and of growth and the way the plants are still expanding I don’t think so.” “Squirrel? Blake asked confused. “More importantly, Date night? _Your_ squirrel?” Yang asked even more confused. Matt examined the wall of greenery as if he was looking for something and explained, “Remember I said in class I was dating a faunus?” “I thought all that was an act?” Ruby said. “The personality, gruff demeanor, and mysterious presence were an act. The lessons, ideals, and everything else were real. To answer Blake’s question, Ringo is a squirrel faunus and a special one. Unlike most faunus who only have one physical animal trait like horns, ear, or tails; Ringo has multiple ones. She has a squirrel tail, ears, and claws. To answer Yang, I’m dating her. Ringo is one of the members of my team when I we were students, team MRLN (Merlin). I’ll tell you, a lot can happen between teammates in four years. You should see the ‘L’ and the ‘N’ in are team, now there is an odd match. Aha!”

                Matt had found what he was looking for. He had felt a weak point in the plants, drew one of his machine pistol and converted it to a sword holding it with a backhanded grip. He lined up the blade, stabilizing it along the space between his thumb and index finger. He drove the blade into the plants and then rolled the blade around to bore a hole. He withdrew the blade and put the weapon away. He looked through the hole. “Hum, it looks like she hasn’t been out long, the plants haven’t filled into the room,” he said. “What do you mean by, out?” Ruby asked. Matt explained as he kept looking through the hole, “Ringo has a problem with controlling her semblance in her sleep. Sometimes her semblance will activate while she is sleeping and plants around her will start to grow and Ringo loves her plants. Her room is full of potted plants and seeds. One morning I came by and ninety five percent of the room’s volume was plants.” Then his eyes went wide, “Uh oh.” He backed off and put his head in his hand.

               “What now?” Yang asked. Matt’s answer was short and just confused them more, “Crooked Sprout.” “What?” She asked again. “Crooked Sprout, Ringo’s boomerang sniper rifle. It has compartments in it that can open while it’s in flight. This lets her strategically place her combat seeds for plants to use in battle,” Matt answered. “What do you mean by combat seeds?” asked Weiss. “Oh let’s see. Thick rows of trees for barricades, vines for restraints, giant Venus fly traps, the list goes on,” he answered. “So let’s blast her out,” Yang suggested as she primed one of her gauntlets and got ready to punch. Matt whipped around grabbed her arm, “No!” Yang put her hand down. Matt breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Some of the plants she uses are specially laced with dust, which makes them highly explosive.” “So then how do we get in?” Blake asked. Matt drew his broad sword and smiled as she said, “The old fashion way.”

                He lunged forward and slashed through the plants. They heard the sound of a dozen slashes and then nothing. Matt popped his head back through the shredded plants draped in the door, “Well you coming or what?” He popped back in and the girls cautiously followed. As they entered, they were dazzled by the room’s interior. The walls were coated in vines and branches. Ringo’s furniture looked like it was grown and each corner of the room had a thick tree growing in them, culminating in a lush canopy on the ceiling. On one wall they saw a large bladed boomerang with vines growing out of compartments in it. But the one thing that confused them. It looked like a huge flower bud that hadn’t bloomed yet. While the girls stood there looking at it wondering what it could be, Matt walked strait up to it and yelled at it, “Ringo, Wake up! You’re growing in your sleep again!” Nothing happened. Matt sighed, knelt down and started to examine the vines around the base of the bud. When he found the vine he was looking for he pulled it. The flower slowly opened to reveal a surprise.

                Curled up inside was a squirrel eared girl, probably twenty years old, and hugging her tail using it as a pillow. Matt jumped up towards the canopy and grabbed a walnut that was growing from it. The girls watched him brimming with curiosity. Matt smirked and spoke, “Watch this.” He cracked the nut open in his grip and one of the squirrel girl’s ears popped up. They could hear the faint sound of her nose sniffing the air. She leaned her head over her tail towards Matt as he held his hand out with the shelled nut in it. She sniffed the nut, her eyes closed still half asleep. In a quick motion, she scooped the nut out of her mouth and hid her head behind her tail again and asked, “I did it again, didn’t I?” He chuckled under his breath, “Good morning Ringo.” Her head popped up over her tail, smiled, and said, “morning.”

                Then she looked over his shoulder and saw her prized boomerang. “Sprouty!” She yelled in horror as she leaped over Matt to the weapon. She put her hands to her mouth in discontent and then started cleaning out the plants growing. Matt playfully scoffed as he said, “Huh, I’ve lost her to a boomerang.” She finished, took it down, and folded it bringing to two far ends together putting it in its compact form. She hugged it like it was her child and turned back to Matt. He looked back over his shoulder to the girls and said, “Like I said, crazy squirrel.” Ringo looked over his shoulder to see the four first years behind them. She playfully shoved him a bit with one hand as she said, “Matt you didn’t tell me we had guests.”

                She stepped around him and walked over to the four girls. She rested the end of Crooked Sprout on the ground next to her and smiled at them. Now that she wasn’t hiding behind her tail they got a better look at her. She was rather short, no taller than five feet. She had brown hair tied back in a pony tail that came over her shoulder and two short bangs framing her white face and deep dark brown eyes. Her tail and ears were the same color and her tail had a long darker brown stripe down it which she held high, topping off two inches above her head. She had on a short blue short-sleeve jacket with yellow trim over yellow t-shirt. She wore black bike shorts with a blue skirt with a slit and yellow trim and a brown belt with a few pouches hanging off the back. On her feet, brown hiking boots with yellow laces and black socks coming up just over the top of them. Her emblem of a cracked egg corn was on her shoulder and she had bracelets made of vines with various seeds woven into them.

                She smiled and introduced herself, “Hello girls. I’m Ringo, your dorm advisor. Feel free to come to me anytime you need something.” She put out her hand to shake. Ruby went first. She smiled as she shook Ringo’s hand, “Hi I’m Ruby.” “Ah so you’re the little scythe wielding prodigy Matt told me about. I look forward to seeing just how good you are with my own eyes,” she replied. Ringo moved next to her to Weiss. “Your Weiss Schnee correct?” she asked as she put her hand out to shake. Weiss hesitated for a moment but then shook it. “Just for the record, I assure you that I have hold no animosity towards you or your family as a faunus,” Ringo assured her. Weiss did her best not to show it, but it did make her feel a little better. Next up was Yang. “Hi I’m Yang, Ruby’s sister,” Yang introduced herself as she shook her hand. “Matt tells me you’re a real spitfire. I’m sure we’ll get along swimmingly.” Finally it was Blake’s turn. Ringo looked her strait in the eye and raised an eyebrow. Blake’s pupils turned to slits, did she know? Did she know she was a faunus? Ringo smiled and put her hand out. “So you must be Blake. I’m sure we’ll get along ‘perfectly’.” Ringo said with emphasize on the purr. Blake didn’t know how she knew but she had to. Still she kept calm and shook her hand.

                “So did Matt give you a good screwing with?” She asked. He came up behind her, casually brushed her tail to the side, and lightly rested his chin on her head between her ears which had bent outwards to the sides. He sneered, “And I thought you knew me.” She playfully smacked him on the head and he just snickered. She rested he chin in her hand and sighed, “What am I going to do with you?” “You know you love me,” he retorted. “Well it looks like I have some pruning to do,” Ringo sighed. “Need a hand?” Matt asked. He drew one of his submachine guns and converted it to sword mode. Ringo frowned, “With pruning shears. Last time you used a sword, you chopped half my furniture into firewood.” Matt frowned, “That’s not my fault. All of your furniture looks like the overgrowth. I keep telling you, buy some furniture don’t grow it you crazy plant lover.” “Eat a salad!” she retorted. “When you eat a steak!” he shot back. He aimed his eyes at her below his chin and hers at his each, frowning at the other. Then they both just laughed at each other.

                “Well sounds like you two have some work to do so why don’t we get out of your hair?” Ruby said. “Well I guess we’ll see you around,” Matt said. “Remember, I’m always here if you need me,” Ringo add. They both waved as team RWBY walked out. The two popped their heads out the door Matt’s above Ringo’s, smiling as the four girls turned the corner. “Why didn’t you tell me one of them was a cat faunus?” She asked him. He snickered, “How did you know?” “A squirrel knows its predator when she sees one,” she answered. “You read her file didn’t you?” he questioned. “Maybe?” She answered. “Come on, let’s get to work,” he said. They went back in.

                 Back with the girls, they could hear the sound of Matt’s sword being drawn then Ringo yelling, “No, Matt, don’t!” There was the sound of several slashes, “Oh Matt! Not again!” Ringo Yelled and then Matt laughed. “We’ll they’re an interesting couple,” Weiss said. Yang and Ruby laughed a little. “Dad always said If Matt found a girl, she’d have to be crazier than him,” Yang said.  “Yeah come on, let’s get dinner. I’m starving,” Ruby said. The others agreed and they left for the cafeteria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on Matt Vert and Ringo visit: http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-MRLN-654026973.


	3. One Wreck on the Rocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a stressful class with one of Beacons more eccentric teachers. The members of team RWBY send Yang out to fetch pizza only to have her wreck her bike. Now Matt will introduce them to another member Beacon's staff and to some of the colorful huntsmen living in Vale.

It had been a few days since team RWBY met their eccentric combat instructor Matt Vert. He was a really something. He had one wacked out sense of humor and the combat skills to put down just about any foe in Remnant.

                It was a clear morning at Beacon Academy and the girls of team RWBY were getting ready for class. Their only class that day was a lecture on tracking targets in the field. This lecture was out in the forest of forever fall so they dressed in their normal clothes instead of their uniforms. They were just finishing packing their weapons when they heard a sound. “What was that?” Weiss asked. “It sounded like a static shock. Like when you rub wool socks on the rug and touch a doorknob,” Ruby said. They heard it again and then once more but more intense. The sound attracted their attention to an empty electrical socket in the wall. Several small bolts of electricity jumped out of the socket and then a large bolt shot straight out of the socket and the four just managed to jump out of the way. The bolt of electricity began to take on the shape of a person and turned into Matt. As soon as he materialized he continued flying forward at high speed, hit a bookshelf head first and knocked all the books down burying him. The four girls looked at the piled as it settled. The pile then shifted and the head of a half dazed Matt popped out of the pile, his glasses disheveled.

                He put his hand to his head and said, “Still got to work on those landings. Where did I land?” He straightened his glasses, saw the four girls in front of him, and sarcastically said, “Well this isn’t the teacher’s lounge, the makeshift bunk beds are supposed to be on the other wall.” “Matt what the dust?” Ruby asked. “Well jumping through the air as a bolt of lightning has a limited range due to the limited conductivity of air. By jumping into an electrical socket, I can use the electrical infrastructure of building and cities to extend my range,” He answered. “Well it looks like something went wrong,” Weiss said sarcastically. Matt used his lightning speed to pick up all the books and put them back in a matter of seconds. “Yeah, I swear between four years of school and four of teaching at this school you’d think I’d have gotten the conduits of this school mapped out. But every once in a while I fly out of the wrong socket,” he said.

                He noticed that they were wearing their usual clothes which usually meant they had a field lecture. “You guys have a field lecture today?” he asked. “Yeah it’s with a guest lecturer. What was his name again?” Ruby asked. “ _Her_ name, is professor Lavender,” Weiss answered looking at her scroll. “Lulu’s teaching the class? Oh I’m so coming with you,” He said. “You know this professor?” Blake asked. “Of course I know her. She is the ‘L’ in MRLN. She is a member of my team from school. If she’s teaching, I got to see this,” he answered.

                They started towards the helipad to join the other students. From there they hopped onto one of the bullhead transports to the Forest of Forever Fall. As the transport made its way to the forest they continued to talk. “So Matt, What is professor Lavender like?” Yang asked. “Well Lulu is a complicated person. Let’s just say she is a machine gun toting, monster movie loving, megalomaniac,” he answered. The girls were only more confused. The bullhead pulled over the landing zone and the side hatch opened. Matt hung out the side looking down to the forest several hundred feet below. Then without warning, he let go of the hull and dropped out yelling, “YAHOOY!” The girls had tried to grab him before he fell out but then realized he was showing off, again. Matt whipped out his sword Storm Reaper, converted it to its hover board form, and slapped it on his feet. He spun through the air and then pointed the board downward. He gunned the anti-gravity drive and he slowed to a stop.

                The bullheads landed and the students exited the crafts. Team RWBY walked up to Matt and Yang gave him a playful punch in the shoulder, “Show off.” He just chuckled. Then there was a large explosion in the distance and a plume of dust flew up. Everyone looked towards the explosion as another one went off, this time closer. Another went off and then another. Finally, a final explosion went off and large patch of trees at the edge of the clearing were practically vaporized and a young woman was seen walking up to the class through the newly cleared area. She had a large rocket launcher slung over her shoulder and pulled a very large cart behind her, a cart a woman of her size and muscle tone should not be able to pull. The cart appeared to contain a pile of large boxes and covered with a tarp.

                She reached the students and dropped the rope that was attached to the cart. She converted the rocket launcher into a compacted form and stowed it on her back. The students now had a better look at her. She was a rather thin, about five foot four, and appeared to not have too much muscle tone considering the unnatural amount of strength she had demonstrated. She had pale skin and blue eyes. Her black hair was tied back into two short ponytail with purple highlights and her eyes were just as purple. She wore a form fitting black and purple horizontal striped hoodie. She had black skinny jeans, a holster on her right hip holding what looked like a large revolver, and black combat boots with purple laces. On her back was a small thin backpack and a bandoleer crossed from her shoulder to her hip and contained many cylindrical capsules containing various colored dust crystals.  On her head she wore a military styled beret with a large pin of her bat emblem.

                Most of the students went back to chatting with each other, which appeared to anger this woman. She drew her revolver and fired it up in the air to get their attention. “Alright boys and girls, time for class!” she yelled and the class paid attention. She pulled her weapon from her back, converted to a large battle axe, and rested the end on the ground. “I am Professor Lavender and I will be you instructor today!” she yelled. She gestured to her pistol and axe and said, “The axe is Skull Breaker and the pistol is Call to Arms, they will be my teaching assistants.” Matt stifled a laugh but he still managed to attract Lulu’s attention. She put her weapons back in place and strutted straight through the group of students towards the back of the group where Matt was watching from. The students parted to allow her a clear path out of either respect or fear. At the end of this path stood Matt, arms crossed and with his usual smug “I’m superior to everyone and I know it,” smile. She walked straight up to him and got right in his face. “Matt, What are you doing here?” she demanded to know in a frustratingly annoyed. “Taking a refresher course,” he answered smugly. She frowned, annoyed by his sarcastic tone. “Matt, get the heck out of here,” she demanded of him. “And miss observing you ‘unique teaching style’?” he retorted with air quotes. “You’re a real piece of work,” she scoffed back as she turned and walked back to the front of the class.

                She sighed and said to herself, “Alright where was I? Ah yes.” She turned to the class and said, “Today’s lesson is a test of your tracking abilities.” She whipped the tarp from the cart and it was full of cages. In them were various species of captured Grimm. “Each team will be assigned a specific breed of grim and will have to till the end of the day to track it down. You must then kill it and then quickly photograph it with your scroll before it disintegrates,” she informed them as she passed out small pieces of paper with their assignments. “But all the grim are already here?” Nora questioned. Lulu sighed in annoyance and stepped over to the cages. One by one she picked them up and threw them over her students’ heads, deep into the forest of scarlet trees. She turned back to them and said, “They aren’t now.” “So, what now?” Jaune asked. Lulu face took on an annoyed look. She drew her Skull breaker and it converted to a machinegun with a belt of ammo hanging out of it. She fired a line of rounds along the feet of the students in the front row scaring them. She gestured to the forest behind them, “Go! You have till sun down.” They still didn’t move. She fired at their feet until they turned and ran into the forest.

                Matt walked up behind her chuckling. He was carrying two hot cups of coffee. “Well you certainly have an interesting teaching method. Coffee?” he said offering her one of the cups. She folded her weapon to its compact form and put it back on her back. She took the mug, had a sip, and sighed. “I swear the students of this school seem to get dumber every year. In our day we would have charged after those Grimm as soon as I threw them,” she said. “By the way how are you tracking them and making sure they don’t cheat?” he asked. “Oh right,” she said. She pressed the buttons on top of a few of the capsules on her bandoleer and a few dozen small green wind dust crystals fell into her hand. She threw them out and her eyes glowed. The crystal glowed and transformed into golems of swirling wind. The golems then flew out and watched over the students. “There we go,” she said to herself. She took another sip of her coffee and looked down at the mug with a confused face. “Matt where did you get fresh coffee all the way out here?” she asked. Matt smiled and said, “Narco, hides the darnedest things in those bullheads. You just need to know where to look.” “So he hid two cups of coffee in one of the bullheads that miraculously didn’t spill while they were in flight?” she asked. Matt chuckled and answered, “Of course not. He hid a coffee maker.” “Sounds like Narco,” she said, her tone half annoyed half amused. They both laugh.

                They built a fire and sat around drinking coffee for a few hours. Eventually, teams started returning. First came team RWBY with their picture of the four of them and their death stalker. Next was team JNPR who was assigned an ursa. Eventually all the teams but team CRDL returned. Then they heard yelling. Matt and Lulu stood up from their fire and looked towards the yelling. Eventually team CRDL came running out of the trees followed by a dozen king tajitsus. “For the love of Dust! These guys are useless!” Matt scoffed as he gestured towards them. Matt leaned over and asked Lulu, “You want it?” She shrugged, “Sure, I could use the exercise.” Lulu gulped down the last of her coffee, handed Matt her cup, and strutted out towards the towering snake grim as Cardin and his team ran past her in a panic. Some of the students standing behind Matt went to draw their weapons, but Matt held out a hand signaling them to stop. He looked back over his shoulder and assured them, “Don’t worry. If she couldn’t handle this, she couldn’t call herself a huntress.”

                As she walked up to the beasts she brought her hands to her bandoleer. She pressed the buttons on top of several of her capsules and various colored dust crystals fell into her hands. She threw them out and her eyes glowed bright purple. From the green crystals came more golems of swirling wind. From the red fire dust came golems of lava rock and fire. The blue water dust turned into golems the form liquid water but in the shape of a man.  Yellow lightning dust became hunched over werewolves like golems with fur made of raw surging lightning. The light blue ice dust became golems of ice and snow. Finally, the orange earth dust became huge golems made of rocks and dirt.

                Within seconds, Lulu had a small army of minions ready for battle. She let out a huff as if she just had the wind knocked out of her. Clearly summoning this many minions took a lot out of her. However, she wasn’t out of commission. She took a second to get her bearings as her minions were having a staring contest with the grim. She jumped up onto the broad shoulder of one of her earth golems, drew her axe, and slung it over her shoulder. “Let’s do this boys! Charge!” she yelled to her troops. With that the dust creatures charged the grim.

                The fire golems began to throw fireballs as the snake grim dodged. The wind golems swarmed the grim and punched the grim with their fists of high pressure air. The lightning golems howled and bolts of lightning flew from their mouths. The water golems shot high pressure water and soaked the ground and then the ice golems and their icy breathes froze the ground around the grim and they couldn’t find the traction they needed to slither.  The rock golems then grabbed the snakes to hold them down. Lulu jumped from her perch on one of the rock golems towards one of the King Tajitsus and chopped its head off. She spun around and slashed up, gutting it. The golem that was holding that snake was grabbed by another snake and was crushed. She drew her hand cannon Call to Arms and popped off 6 rounds in its eye. She reloaded and shot the next one. She converted her axe to a machine gun and blew through the rest of her ammo belt. She ejected the belt and whipped one out of her pack. She reloaded and kept firing. She blew through two more of the grim as her minions took out another. The rest were easily dispatched and then there was a shifting in the trees. She turned to see a giant Nevermore fly out of the trees and high into the air above her. She huffed in frustration, flipped her machinegun up and converted it to its rocket launcher for, and attached a new clip of rockets. She took aim and fired off all four rockets at the grim. They homed in and exploded on impact with the evil bird. She smiled and turned to walk back to her class, putting her weapon away. The nevermore began to lose altitude and seemed to be headed straight for her. Ruby was about to warn her when Matt stopped her. The nevermore hit the ground and started grinding up the ground towards Lulu. Without warning she leaped up backwards onto the head of the half dead nevermore but not quite dead nevermore. As she flew through the air she drew her hand cannon and converted it into a buoy knife like form. She came down on the grim’s head and stabbed the blade down with both hands assuring it was dead. She jumped off as it began to disintegrate and walked back to her students, knife still in hand. She sighed in relief that it was over. She converted her knife back to a gun, returned it to its holster as she said, “Class dismissed.”

                Matt and team RWBY took a bullhead back to the main campus and the girls returned to their room. The girls all plopped face first on their beds. “Agh, what a day,” Weiss complained as she landed face first in her pillow. “I know. I would just curl up and sleep for a week if I wasn’t so hungry,” Blake answered sprawled out on her bed. “Now that you mention it I’m hungry too,” Ruby said as she dangled her head upside done off the side of her precariously hanging top bunk. “Me too, but I am not in the mood for cafeteria food,” Yang said lying on her stomach. The others agreed. None of them were in the mood for the cafeteria. ‘So what do we do?” Ruby asked. “uhh izo,” Weiss said with her face buried in her pillow. “What?” Ruby asked. Weiss turned her head to face the others. “Order pizza,” Weiss said. “I don’t think any pizza places in Vale deliver all the way up here to Beacon,” Blake interjected. “I’ll pick it up,” Yang volunteered. “Wait what time is the last transport to Vale?” Weiss asked looking at her watch. Don’t worry about that, I’ll take my bike,” Yang said as she jumped down from her bunk and picked up a pen and pad from one of the desks. “So what are we ordering?” she asked. They all answered at once. “Ham and pineapple,” Ruby said. “Green peppers and mushrooms,” Weiss said. “Peperoni and chili peppers,” Yang said. “Salmon, tuna, and anchovies,” Blake requested. Ruby, Yang, and Weiss looked at Blake funny. “You actually _like anchovies_?” Ruby asked her. “I like the saltiness,” she answered. “Sounds like we all want something different. Why don’t we just get four different pizzas and we’ll have leftovers for a while?” Yang suggested. They agreed. Yang jotted down their orders and left to get her motorcycle.

                “How long do you think she’ll be?” Weiss asked. Ruby chuckled, “clearly you have never seen Yang ride.” They heard a loud motor rev and start down the road just outside there window at what was probably double the allotted speed limit. “Well hello handsome!” they could hear Yang yelled to someone. Just then they heard the screech of tires and a loud painful crash. The three rush over to the open window and stuck their heads out to see Yang had crashed. “Yang!” Ruby yelled in horror. “What the dust happened!” they heard Matt demand to know. They looked down the side of the building to see him and Ringo sticking their heads out of his window. “Yang!” Ruby yelled in horror and Matt looked down to the wreck. On instinct he bolted out of his window and materialized next to an unconscious Yang. The remaining members of team RWBY jumped down from their own window and ran over as Ringo slid down a vine she had just grown out of her bracelet.

                They ran up to Matt who was holding up Yang checking her vitals. “She’s breathing fine, pulse is good,” he said. He held one of her eye lids open and flashed a flash light on and off in her eye to test for reaction. Yang came out of her daze and shooed him away. She put a hand to her head and said, “Oh my head.” Matt breathed a sigh of relief. “What happened?” she asked. “Yang!” Ruby yelled in relief as she hugged her sister. “You crashed you bike,” Matt answered her, pointing to her trashed bike. “Bumblebee!” Yang yelled. “Better catch a transport then,” she said in slight frustration. “Like heck. Your need to rest,” Matt said. “Oh come on Matt. We both know with my semblance, I can take far worse than that. Besides I got to go get our pizzas,” she said gesturing at her wrecked bike and holding up her team’s pizza order. Matt snatched the order from her hands saying sternly, “I’ll get your pizza. You stay.” Just then the last out going transport of the day flew over. “Oh man! How are we going to get our pizza now?” Weiss complained. “Yang isn’t the only one here with a bike,” Matt said.

                Matt bolted back to the parking lot and they heard a motor start up. He then returned riding a green sport motorcycle with black lightning bolt details. Matt revved the motor and sat up on the bike. “What do you think?” he asked them. Yang’s jaw dropped and she asked, “Where’d you get a bike like that?” Matt smiled. “I know a guy. Plus with old Storm Front here, I can have those pizza here in half the time,” he said as he patted the motorcycle. “How’s that?” Yang asked. Matt flipped a switch and the mike began to rumble. The front and back wheels split in two and turned parallel to the ground. Two jet thrusters folded out on the back and the wheels began spinning like jet turbines as the whole motorcycle began to hover. Everyone was awestruck. “How?” Yang demanded to know. “Like I said, I know a guy!” Matt yelled back over the noise of the engines. “I’ll be back in about an hour!” he yelled to them. He pulled back on his controls and the bike rose higher into the air. He turned the accelerator and took off towards Vale.

                “Well let’s get Yang back upstairs shall we,” Ringo said. She threw one of Yang’s arms over her shoulder and Ruby came up under her other shoulder. Along with Weiss and Blake, they carefully walked Yang back up to team RWBY’s room and laid her down. About an hour later there was a knock on the door. Blake opened it and in walked Matt, balancing six pizzas in his right hand and carried a couple liter bottles of soda under his left arm. “Matt didn’t we ordered four pizzas?” Blake asked. “I picked up a couple for me and Ringo,” he answered. “Ok one ham and pineapple,” he said. “That’s mine,” Ruby said as Matt passed it up to her on her bunk. “Green peppers and mushrooms,” He continued. “Down here,” Weiss said from her bed and Matt passed it to her. “Peperoni and chili peppers.” “Come to mama,” Yang said. “Ok, Salmon, tuna, and Anchovies?” he said hinting that he found the selection displeasing. Blake swiped the box and returned to her bed. “Anchovies? You actually eat those?” he asked. “I like the saltiness,” she said. “Ok so roasted egg corns for Ringo,” He said handing a pizza to Ringo. “So that leaves mine,” He said as he opened the box. Everyone go a whiff of what he had and there eye bulged. “Matt what exactly did you get?” Ruby asked. “The Matt Vert special, aka the heart attack hurricane. Ham, bacon, pulled pork, steak, shrimp, extra cheese and garlic,” he answered. Weiss gagged. “Well it’s not for the faint of heart,” he said.

                They began eating. “Man, what am I going to do about Bumblebee?” Yang said as she started eating. Matt swallowed and said, “Don’t worry about it. I know a guy.” “Who is that?” she asked. “You mean Narco right Matt?” Ringo asked. “Who is this Narco?” Weiss asked. “You’ve already met Me, Ringo, and Lulu the ‘M’ ‘R’ and ‘L’ of team MRLN. Narco is the ‘N’ and the last member. Guy is a mechanical genius. He can fix anything with an axle,” Matt explained. “You sure he can help?” Yang asked. “Please firecracker if he can’t fix the bike, then he’ll build you a new one just for fun. I’ll take you to him tomorrow,” he said.

                The next day Matt took team RWBY to meet Narco. As they walked through the courtyard Ruby asked, “So Matt, where exactly is Narco?” “Narco is in charge of Beacon’s hanger. He makes sure the bullheads are maintained,” He explained. They reached the hanger which had been left open. It was a large structure, larger than four football fields and ten stories tall. Along the sides of the building were five levels of landing platforms, one over the other each with a bullhead sitting on it. “So where is he?” Yang asked. “Narco!” Matt yelled out into the structure with his hands cupped around his mouth. He tried again, “Narco it’s Matt!” “Yeah!” they heard from the distance. Blake pointed up to the top platform at the far end of the Hanger, “Up there.” Standing there they could just make out a man. “Narco I need a favor!” Matt called out. “Alright!” He called back. The man stepped off the platform and fell. “Oh no!” Ruby said as the man fell. However, something strange happened. Instead of hitting the ground, he seemed to go through it. “What the?” Weiss said in disbelief. “Cool huh?” they heard a voice say behind them with a thick southern accent. The girls jumped as they turned around, startled by the person that just appeared behind them. Matt turned around and said, “Narco you show off.” “How did he do that?” Weiss demanded to know pointing at him. “My semblance allows me to jump into a shadow and come flying out another,” he answered.

                “Girls this is Narco Grizzle,” Matt said introducing his friend. “It’s a pleasure,” Narco said offering a greasy gloved hand to shake. The girls leaned away, preferring not to shake the grease coated hand. Narco looked at his greasy glove and understood their hesitation. “Oh sorry about that, hazard of working with heavy machinery all day,” he said as he wiped it on his jeans. The girls took a better look at him. He had greasy salt and pepper hair, a pair of silver and black welding goggles on his for, and dark blue eyes. His skin was white but had a thick layer of axle grease that dulled it. He had a white shirt made grey by grease and greasy blue jeans with a few small tears in them. He wore leather boots and had an open black leather biker vest with several pockets on it and his emblem of a skull chewing a wrench on the back. He wore a thick leather belt with a large tool belt hanging down his right leg. He had a long chain wrapped around his chest and a sawed off pump-action shotgun on his back.

                “So what did you need Matt?” Narco asked. “Well did you hear about an accident last night?” Matt asked his friend. “Yeah I heard no one got hurt,” He said. “No _person_ , got hurt. However, one motorcycle by the name of bumblebee is in pieces,” He said. Narco’s eyes went wide. He ran over and jumped into a shadow. He then flew back out carrying a pair of heavy tool boxes. With a serious face he said, “Where’s my patient?” Matt took the tool boxes and set them on the floor. “Why don’t we just bring the bike here instead of the tools to the bike?” he said. Narco once again jumped into a shadow. A minute later a big grey four by four pickup truck with a role bar and big lights on the roof drove up behind them driven by Narco. Matt and the girls hopped in the freight bed and they drove over to the crash site. Narco opened the back window to talk to Yang, “So what kind of bike are we talking about here?” She leaned over to the window and answered, “custom Vale Roller 388.” She answered. “An old fashion dust combustion engine huh? Nice ride. Let’s hope we can bring her back to life,” he said. They pulled up and surveyed the seen. “Sue wee, thank the dust you walked away from this,” Narco said in his thick southern accent. “Well let’s get her back to the hanger and take a closer look,” Narco said. “You guys can go if you want to guys. I know you’re not exactly grease monkeys,” Yang offered. “Well alright. Just call if you need us,” Ruby said as she, Weiss, and Blake left. Matt, Narco, and Yang loaded up Bumblebee into the back of the truck and threw in all the stray parts they could find on the ground.

                When they got back to the hanger, they unloaded the bikes, and Narco began to go over it in detail. “Let’s see, bent tires, torn dust line, cracked dust tank, structural damage to the chasis, and,” he paused. “Is that? Don’t tell me. Yang, there is a magnifying glass on the workbench over there, would you bring it her?” he asked her. Yang brought it to him and he used it to take a closer look at the engine block. He sat back and sighed, “Oh no.” “What’s wrong?” Yang asked. “Huh, the combustion cylinder is cracked,” he answered. “Wait what part is that again?” she asked. “A dust combustion engine runs by using the contained detonation of powdered fire dust to drive pistons that turn the crank shaft that is connected to the back wheel. The combustion cylinder contains the explosion so it drives the pistol but it has a hairline crack,” He explained. He held out the magnifying glass to show her the crack that was unnoticeable to the naked eye. “That doesn’t look that bad,” she said. “You don’t get it. A crack even, a hairline one is a major structural weakness. If we fired it up with a crack it would weaken further and eventually breach,” He explained. “Breach?” Yang asked. “BOOM!” Matt yelled in her ear and scaring the dust out of her. “So we replace the cylinder,” she said. “It’s not that simple. There are four cylinders in that bike and they are all forged as one solid piece plus it’s a major piece of framework that holds the bulk of the engine block together. We’re basically going to have to take the entire bike apart and put it back together with new parts,” he explained. “So how long will it take to fix?” Yang asked. Narco pulled a greasy pad and pen from his tool belt and started doing calculations, “Let’s see, complete rebuild, new axles, brakes, body work, paint, chassis repair, new parts.” He put the end of the pen to his chin as he thought and went back to the calculations, “Assuming we put in a maximum of 5 upgrades along the way, working one to two hours each week day, all day on Saturday and Sunday, carry the four. Two weeks.” “Two weeks?!” Yang scoffed. “Well it will go faster if you help,” Narco suggested. “Well looks like you two are going to be busy,” Matt said as he pulled his friends under her arms. Of course then he realized Narco was coated in grease.

                Matt left the two of them to their project. “Come on. I think I got a spare set of coveralls that should fit you,” He said as he took her hand. He pulled her with him as he walked straight into a shadow. As soon as she hit the shadow Yang saw that she had come out somewhere else. “That’s disconcerting,” she commented. “You get used to it,” Narco said. Yang took a look around. They were standing on a platform in the rafters of the hanger right next to a large window above the hanger door. There was a hammock hanging from two struts of the rafters and several pieces of makeshift furniture cobbled together out of scrap metal. “Where are we? Don’t tell me you live here?” Yang questioned. “Yeah I know it looks like a junkyard but it’s comfortable,” he said as he dug around in a cabinet made of scrap. “It smells like grease,” Yang said. “I pretty much grew up in a mechanic’s garage in southern Vale, I live on that smell,” he said as he threw her a set of dark blue coveralls. “Don’t worry, they’re not used,” he assured her. She changed behind a screen of scrap metal and came back out in the baggy coveralls. “Oh, you might want to tie your hair back. It gets caught everywhere,” he told her and she tied it back into a pony tail.

                “So you want to take the shadows down or the fun way down?” he asked her. Yang was confused, “Fun way?” Narco gestured her over to the edge of the platform and took hold of a chain that was hooked to the ground. He unhooked it and jumped, swinging on an arc down to the hanger floor. “Your turn!” he yelled up to her. Yang did as he did yelling “Yahoo!” all the way down. Together they hauled the motorcycle into Narco’s private workshop that he had built in any empty landing space. He had large work benches, peg boards full of tools, large tool boxes, and a winch overhead.

                “Well let’s get to it,” Narco said. They started stripping down the external bodywork on the bike and disassembled the frame work. “Ok now we got to take the engine block out,” he said. He jumped up and grabbed the hook of the winch. He attached the hook to a hook point on the engine. “Come give me a hand?” he asked Yang, gesturing her over to a large bolt like thing sticking out of the ground. He drew his shotgun. “What’s that for?” she asked. “Chop Shop has more uses than just for combat,” he answered as he flipped a switch on the weapon. The shotgun became a large wrench and she locked the mouth around the huge bolt. “Take hold of this,” he told her and she got her grip on the wrench. He walked over to the half disassembled bike and took hold of the engine. “Alright, on the count of three, turn the bolt and the winch will start to wind in. One, two, three,” he said. Yang turned the bolt and inch by inch, the motor rose out of the chassis. Narco pulled the winch axle over and they lowered the engine to the ground. Yang walked back over carrying the wrench. “This thing is pretty handy. What else can it do?” she asked as she handed it back to Narco. He flipped a switch and it became rounded end chainsaw sword. He then pressed another switch and a pole extended turning the weapon into a glaive. He pressed it again and it converted back to a shotgun as he put it back on his back with a smile.

                For the next week or so, Yang spent every free moment in the hanger working on bumblebee with Narco. Her absence went pretty much unnoticed by Ruby and Weiss who were constantly bickering over something, but Blake was a different story. Yang’s absence was beginning to way heavy on her. She wouldn’t admit it but she missed Yang. She was her partner and Blake had grown attached to her. She ended up spending all her free time sitting in the library reading since she had nothing else to do.

                It had been a week and a half since Yang started spending all her time with Narco in the Hanger. She was reading a book but secretly had one of her _Ninjas of Love_ books hidden in it. However, she could not focus on the gushy love novel. “Something on your mind pussycat?” came from in front of her. Blake was startled, nearly dropping her books. She lowered the book to see Ringo dangling upside down from a vine that was tied to a banister on the upper floor. “How did you?” Blake began to ask but was cut off. “Know you’re a faunus? A squirrel knows a cat when she sees one. That and I read you file,” she answered.  She flipped down and pulled up a chair. “Let me guess, you miss having Yang around?” she asked. “How did you?” Blake tried to asked but was cut off. “I watch my students,” she answered. “She’s just been so busy with her bike that we never see her,” Blake said. “So why not try to help her with it?” Ringo suggested. Blake raised a brow in interest. “Look if you want to hang out with someone, try doing something they like doing,” Ringo said. “Well ok, I guess I can try,” Blake said as she got up. “Look I know for a fact that they have been skipping lunch on a regular basis while working on that bike. Try bringing them lunch and see where it goes from there,” Ringo suggested. She then got up from her seat and hugged Blake. “Good luck,” she told Blake and ran off.

                Blake decided to give it a shot. She went to the cafeteria and picked up a stack of four boxed lunches. She knew Matt had been dropping by to help them and wanted to be prepared. She then walked over to the Hanger. “A month!” she heard Yang scream in disbelief from inside. Blake walked into the hanger and found Matt and Narco sitting back in a couple of scrap chairs while Yang was pacing in front of them. “Why would it take that long?” she demanded to know. Narco sighed, “They just don’t make bikes like this anymore. Ordering the new parts is going to take time,” Narco said. He took out what looked like a cigarette case. “Yang looked at him confused, “Since when do you smoke?” “I don’t,” Narco said as he took one of several dozen toothpicks out of the case and began to chew on it in frustration. “Sounds like someone isn’t happy,” Blake said as she walked up. She set down the boxed lunches on the junk coffee table. “I heard you guys have been skipping meals working on this thing. It’s not healthy,” she said. “Hello,” Matt said as he reached for a box. “Come to papa,” Narco said as he took one and threw away his toothpick. The two began to eat. Yang realized she had to take a brake and sat down taking a lunch. The four of them sat to eat as Blake asked, “So what’s the problem you having?” “Ugh, Narco says it will take a month to order in the right gauges,” Yang answered in frustration.

                “Sounds like someone has a problem,” they heard. Professor Ozpin walked up carrying his usual cup of coffee. “Professor, what are you doing down here?” Yang asked. “I need to requisition a bullhead. I have business in town,” the older man said. “Sure thing boss,” Narco said. Narco turned around in his seat. “Hey Lewy, go fire up number eight!” he yelled to someone in the distance. “Got it boss!” an unseen person yelled back. Ozpin took a seat with the others as he waited for his ride. “So what seems to be the problem?” he asked. “Some of the parts we need for Yang’s bike we need are going to take forever to get here,” Matt said. “Well is there not another source you can get these parts from?” Ozpin asked as he sipped his coffee. Matt and Narco instantly stopped chewing. They looked at each other and then each slapped themselves on the head saying in unison, “Why didn’t we think of that?” “You think he would have any?” Matt asked him. “Knowing him he probably has a dozen,” Narco said. “Your speaking of mister Zaffre Steel are you not?” Ozpin asked. “Who is Zaffre Steel?” Blake asked. “Zaffre is a huntsman who graduated Beacon the same year as Mister Vert and Grizzle here,” Ozpin answered as he gestured towards the two former students. “And on top of being a huntsman, Zaffre runs a paint, body and auto shop on the east side of Vale,” Narco said. Just then a bullhead hovered down near them. “Well it appears my chariot awaits. Good luck,” Ozpin said as he boarded the bullhead and it took off towards Vale.

                “So I guess we’re headed to east Vale,” Blake said. “ _We_ are?” Yang questioned, putting emphasis on the ‘we’. “We’re partners Yang, where you go I go,” Blake said. Yang smile, “Well then I guess we are going to need a bullhead.” “Nah, let’s take the fun way,” Narco suggested. “Fun way?” Blake and Yang said in unison. “Wait here,” Matt told the girls as he and Narco ran off in opposite directions and a minute later Matt road up on his motorcycle Storm Front. Then they heard a load roar of an engine. Narco then road in on a black and silver cruiser style motorcycle. It had a large back fender and the frame work was custom designed to look like wrenches and a large skull design on the fuel tank. “Meet Road Burn,” he said as he patted the fuel tank. “Ok so Blake hops on the back with me and Yang you ride with Narco,” Matt said. The girls got on the back of the bikes that the men revved their engines. Their wheels screeched and they took off in wheelies.

                They headed down the road, out the front gate, and got on the freeway into Vale. Despite their obvious power both bike were pretty smooth rides. Both the girls enjoyed the ride. Yang couldn’t be sure, but she could have sworn she saw a rare smile on Blake’s face. They entered town and road down the streets past the shops and restaurants. As they reached the east side of Vale they pulled into a slightly more industrial area. They then pulled up to an auto garage with a big sign that said Zaffre Auto. They opened their kickstands and turned off their engines.

                The garage door went up and a man walked out. He had black hair, white skin, and blue eyes. He wore a blue tank top and a black jacket with blue detail with the right sleeve totally torn off. He had black jeans and heavy black boots. However, the most interesting thing about him was his entire right arm and hand was covered in armor plating. “Narco, Matt what brings two to my little chunk of Vale?” he greeted. They followed him in and told him what they were looking for. “Hum, gauges for a Vale Roller 388, rare parts,” Zaffre said. “So do you think you have what we need?” Yang asked. “Well I’ll have to see what I got in stock,” he said as he leaned on a large hydraulic press with his metal hand. Just then Blake accidently stepped on a switch going to the press. It activated and slammed down on Zaffre’s armored hand, crushing it. Blake and Yang screamed in horror that seeing the hand get crushed. However, Zaffre didn’t react at all. “What?” Zaffre asked. Yang pointed at his crushed hand and Zaffre looked at it. He gave his arm a tug and it tore away from the press. “For the love of dust, that’s the third one this month!” he cursed. He began to examine the wrist and the girls took another look. They saw torn wiring and dust conduits coming out of the end. “It’s mechanical?” Blake asked as she and Yang began to calm down. “Yeah I lost my real arm to grim years ago,” he said as he disconnected the damaged arm at the shoulder. He walked over to a cabinet and opened it with a kick since his good arm was full. Inside the cabinet were several more mechanical arms. He threw the damaged arm to the bottom of the cabinet and grabbed a new one. He connected it as he walked back to the others. “Alright let’s see what we got,” Zaffre said.

                He led them into his store room. “Well if I got what you need, I should be in here,” Zaffre said. He patted himself down, looking for his key. “Just use you semblance man,” Narco said. Zaffre touched the steel door and it glowed a bit. He then punched it and it broke like Styrofoam. “What the?” Blake demanded to know. “My semblance allows me to alter the density of things I touch. I can make them heavier and stronger or lighter and weaker,” Zaffre explained as they walked in. They began to scourer through the various boxes looking for their quarry. “Is this it?” Blake yelled down the aisle to Yang holding up a gauge. Yang ran down the aisle and took the gauge. She looked it over and said, “similar but not quite what we’re looking for.” They spent the next few hours going through the hundreds of boxes in the store room going late into the evening. Eventually Matt decided to take a break. He sat on the floor and leaned back against the shelves. “This is taking forever,” he said. Zaffre jumped down from a high self, next to Matt. “I know what you’re talking about. Man I could use a drink,” Zaffre said. “I can go get some sodas,” Yang offered. “No I mean a drink. Scotch, whiskey, moonshine, rotgut whatever,” Zaffre said. “A Green Storm?” Matt suggested. “I was thinking a Blue Oiler,” Zaffre suggested. “And a Greasy Boy,” added Narco. “Razor’s it is then,” Matt said.  Matt, Narco, and Zaffre stood up and dusted themselves off. “Come on girls we’re taking a break!” Matt yelled to the girls. “But we haven’t found the parts yet!” Yang yelled back. The three men walked up to the girls who were still digging through boxes. “Girls we’ve been at this for hours. Let’s take a break and come back to it,” Matt said. “Fine,” Yang said reluctantly and she and Blake jumped down from the shelves they were going through.

                They all walked towards the front door. “So where are we going?” Blake asked. “Just a little hole in the wall we know,” Matt said. As they reached the door Zaffre grabbed a motorcycle leaning against the wall. It was a blue and black roadster with beautiful chrome work. The three men fired up their bikes and Yang and Blake got on with Matt and Narco. From the garage, they rode into town and parked in front of a bar on the corner of the street. The girls looked up at the sign and saw the silhouette of a wolf howling at the moon behind it. “The Moon’s Den?” Blake asked. “Hey guys!” they heard from down the street. They turned to see Ruby, Weiss, Ringo, and Lulu walking up. “What are you guys doing here?” Yang asked them. “Ringo and Lulu offered to take us shopping,” Weiss answered. “So what are you guys doing here?” Lulu asked. “Taking a break from searching through random boxes of parts. Care to join us?” Narco asked. “Are we even allowed in there? We’re not twenty one,” asked Yang. Matt patted her on the shoulder as he said, “Just don’t expect any actual alcohol.”

                They nine of them walked in and sat at the bar. The place was empty, not even a bar tender they could see. “I smell hard steel, egg corns, dust lased gunpowder, axle grease, and automotive paint. The members of MRLN and Zaffre to boot,” they heard come from behind the bar. A man popped up behind the bar, drying a glass. He was about five foot eight and no older than Matt. He had spiky silver hair tied back by a red bandana with a pair wolf ears, clearly a faunus. He had a black t shirt and an open silver short sleeve button up shirt with black detail. His pants were black cargo shorts and he wore silver and black sneakers. On is wrists, they could see he had silver and black bracers.

                He looked over at the four girls of team RWBY, curious of their presence. “They’re with us,” Matt said. “Ok but know alcohol for them,” the Bartender asserted. “So A Green Storm, a Cracked Nut, a Big Boom, a Greasy Boy, and a Blue Oiler?” he guessed. “You know us too well Razor you wild dog,” Matt said. “Girls this is Razor Silver, leader of team RAZR (Razor). He is Zaffre’s team leader,” Matt said as he introduced the bartender. “it’s a pleasure,” Razor said as he finished up the drinks and put them up on the bar one at a time. “Ok, a Green Storm for the infamous storm front Matt. A Cracked Nut for the little squirrel Ringo. One Big Boom for the queen of artillery Lulu. A Greasy Boy for the real greasy boy Narco. A Blue Oiler for blue steel Zaffre and a Sharp Howler for the silver hound, me,” Razor said as he passed out the drinks and took his own. “So anything for you girls?” Razor asked the members of team RWBY as he handed them drink menus and turned around to work on something. They each looked over the menus. “What’s with all these odd names?” Weiss asked. Razor turned back to reveal he was chewing on a turkey leg. The girls were startled. Razor swallowed and said, “Sorry. My semblance leaves me with a ridiculously high metabolism so I got to eat. To answer your question, each of our signature drinks is themed after a member of our graduating class.” “Ok I think I’ll have a Soaring Spade,” Weiss said. “I think I’ll try a Golden Eye,” Ruby added. “The Green Blob sounds interesting,” Yang said. “Got anything with tea in it?” Blake asked. “One Barb on the Rocks,” Razor said. He made their drinks and handed them over.

                “To the hunt,” Matt toasted. The others of his age toasted back. “What was that about?” Ruby asked. “Just a little tradition amongst the huntsmen and huntresses of our graduating class,” Ringo explained. “Matt made that toast on our first day at Beacon,” Lulu said.

                “One Silent Song Razor,” the group heard from down the bar. The members of team RWBY looked to their side and saw nothing, leaving them confused. Razor mixed a drink and placed it in front of an empty stool. “Hello Ash,” Razor said as he nursed his drink. “Mr. Razor, no one is there,” Weiss said. Just then the drink slowly began to float into the air. The glass tipped and the liquid began to vanish at the rim of the glass. The girls were awestruck by this. “GHOST!” the four girls yelled. The others just laughed. “Take a closer look,” Matt said. The girls focused their eyes and were able to make out the silhouette of a person. It was almost like a TV screen that was showing what is behind it but was a half second behind real time. “Ash, stop scaring the kids,” Razor said. The silhouette began to change and a young woman appeared as she took another sip of her drink. “Girls meet Ash Kage of team RAZR,” Razor said. “She thinks it’s fun to scare people with her semblance,” Ringo said. “I don’t get it,” Yang said. Ash took another sip and said, “My semblance allows me to blend into my surroundings. The problem is it takes a second to adjust to my surroundings when I move,” she informed them.

                The members of team RWBY took a moment to look her over. She had white hair with black streaks down it tied back into a ponytail and green eyes. She had a black band tied on to her head with long tails and a metal forehead protector. She had a black tank top and a close white coat with black trim and no sleeves that extended to her knees. She wore tight shorts that extended to just above her knees and black and white sneakers.

                Just then the door flew open and a woman walked in and sat at the bar. She had shoulder length black hair with red tips and a feather hair decoration on the right side. She wore a one piece red and black dress, black pants under it with tassels hanging off the legs, and black knee length heeled boots. She had red gloves with silver tubing up each finger connected to bands on her forearms, up to her shoulders and down her back to a spool like object belted to her back hips. In addition, she had what appeared to be a large set of scissors.

                “One me special Razor baby,” she said pointing at herself from above. “One Scarlet Stitch coming up,” Razor said as he started to mix the drink. “Here you go Rouge,” he said as he handed her the drink. “Wait did you say Rouge?” Weiss asked. “Rouge Garnett, that’s the name I was born with,” She said as she took a sip. Weiss shrieked like a fan girl, “Oh my gosh, THE Rouge Garnett? As in the famous Vale fashion designer Rouge Garnett?” “You forgot to add huntress and member of team RAZR to that list of accomplishments,” Razor said.  Weiss spun on her stool and took Rouge’s hand. “Oh my dust, I’ve always wanted to meet you. I love your work. Oh I’ve been dying to visit your shop here in Vale, I just haven’t had the time,” Weiss said as she bounced on her seat like a gleeful schoolgirl. “Well you just come down and tell them I want to see you. I’ll make you something beautiful,” Rouge said.

                The group sat around for an hour reminiscing. The girls of team RWBY were fascinated by the stories their elders told of their adventures. “Wait your telling us you tracked the exact same ursa from the west boarder of the kingdom to the east, without losing it?” Blake asked Razor. “Hey, they don’t call me the Silver Hound for nothing,” he said with a cocky smile, baring a set of fangs. Just then, they heard a dozen motorcycles pull up out front. Matt looked to Razor, “Regulars of yours?” Razor frowned, “Regular pains. Every time they show up, I have to replace half my glasses and a couple of bar stools.” “Yawl want some help?” Narco asked in his colorful southern dialect. “No that’s alright. It’s my bar and I can take care of it,” Razor assured them. “Razor sweetie, we are a team and we will solve our problems as a team,” said Rouge.

                The doors flew open and a dozen burly men in jeans and leather jackets walked in to the bar in a rowdy manner.  “Bar keep, a round for me and the boys!” called what they assumed was the leader. “I told you last time, the proprietor reserves the right to refuse service to unruly elements,” Razor said calmly and confidently as Ozpin while he polished a glass. “And I believe you qualify.” “What did you just say dog boy?” the lead ruffian demanded to know. Blake’s hand tensed on her glass, disturbed by the biker insulting the heritage of a faunas. Razor chuckled in amusement, “Dog boy, haven’t heard that one in a while. For the record I’m a wolf though, and you heard what I said.” The lead biker was furious. He marched over to the bar, reached over and grabbed Razor by the collar. “Either you pour our drinks or I pour your blood,” he threatened. “I’d let go of him if I were you,” Ash said. “Stay out of this girl. I wouldn’t want to see a pretty little thing like you get hurt,” the biker said. “That tears it!” Razor said. “Guys let’s shred em!” Razor said. The four members of team Razor turned their glasses bottom up and gulped down what was left of their drinks. They slammed there glasses down on the bar in unison and Razor jumped over the bar, tackling the lead thug.

                He threw the thug out the door and into the street. The other thugs ran out to help their leader up. “You’re dead!” the lead thug yelled. Razor, Ash, Zaffre, and Rouge stepped out the front door and lined up. The members of teams RWBY and MRLN dashed over to the window to watch what was going on. Team RWBY was watching worried. However, team MRLN sat there excited like they were watching their favorite sports team, sipping their drinks and nibbling on bar nuts and pretzels. Team RAZR and the bikers stood on opposite sides of the street. The air was tense. “So are we going to have a problem?” Razor asked. The bikers pulled out pistols, chains, brass knuckles, and knives. “Waste them!” the lead thug yelled.

                “Shouldn’t we do something?” Weiss asked. “Nah, just sit back and watch the show,” Matt said as he and Narco pulled up a couple of chairs, put their feet up, and continued to enjoy their drinks. “Get them!” the lead thug yelled. The members of team RAZR smiled. Razor threw his hands out to the side and his bracers began to transform. They extended out over his hands and became large razor sharp claws with some sort blue lights in the center of the palms. Ash reached into her coat and pulled out two large fans. They had sharp blades coming out of each arm that hold the fan together and a pistol barrel as well. Zaffre unfolded a shield in his still human left hand. Then his mechanical arm began to change. The hand and forearm changed to become a drill like lance. However, Rouge had the most unique weapon.  Thin metal threats came out of the tubules on her fingers and needles stuck out of where her nails would be.

                The thugs with guns opened fire at them. Ash jumped out of the way and blended into her surroundings. Rouge whipped some of her threads and they wrapped around a tree. The spool on her hips began to spin and quickly reeled her away. Zaffre blocked the opening volley of shots, protecting him and Razor. They then stopped firing to reload. Zaffre held up his shield and Razor pounced on it. Zaffre then spring boarded Razor towards the thugs who started to shred them with his claws like an animal. Ash appeared behind the thugs and slashed at them with her fans, firing off rounds to accelerate the movements. Zaffre charged at one of the larger thugs. When he got in range, he thrusted his lance at him and a shell went off in his elbow for extra impact. The thug went flying and Zaffre elbowed another. His arm converted, becoming a machine gun and he blasted another thug. Rouge threw out some of her threads and they wrapped around the guns of two of the thugs. She pulled back and the guns were sliced like deli meat. One of the thugs fired a burst at her, but she threw up a screen of threads and the bullets were shredded to pieces. She drew her scissors holding them like a sword and charged at him. Ash then noticed a thug coming up behind Rouge. She opened a fan into a full circle and threw it at the thug. It struck him, bounced off, struck another thug, and returned to her. She caught the fan, opened the other the same way, and connected them to thin wires on her belt. She threw them out and used the fans in a similar manner to how Blake used her Gambol Shroud on her ribbon. Razor continued his animalistic assault when a biker was about to sneak up on him. Zaffre noticed and threw a punch towards the far off thug. His fist blasted off like a rocket and hit the thug in the jaw knocking a tooth out. Zaffre’s fist reeled back in on a cable just as a thug came up behind him with a bat. He caught the bat and used his semblance to make it brittle and snapped it in his hand. “Excuse me could you hold this?” He asked the thug as if they were not fighting and handed him the broken bat. Zaffre increased its density and it became as heavy as a car slamming the thug’s hand into the ground. Rouge slashed a thug and opened her scissors. She caught a blade between the sheers and pulled the trigger, firing shots to accelerate the blades closed chopping the thug’s knife in half. Just then, her semblance was triggered. She had a semblance of premonition that allowed her to see a short way into the future. She saw another thug about to stab Razor in the back and it ended. She looked to Razor and the thug was about to stab her. She transformed her scissors into a double barrel automatic rifle. As the thug was about to take Razor, she shot the thug down. Razor looked over to her and gave her a thumbs up with one of his claws. Razor pounced on yet another biker and tore his chain apart with his claws. Another was about to hit him in the back when he activated his semblance. Suddenly several silver blades erupted from Razor’s back, throwing the thug back a bit. Razor turned to him and pulled several of the blades off his back and threw them at the thug to stick him to the wall by his clothes. The lights in the palms began to glow. Balls of blue fire formed in his hands and he threw them at to thugs.

                Eventually, team Razor had backed the thugs together. “What the dust are you?!” the lead biker demanded to know. Matt and the members of team MRLN walked out and joined team RAZR, weapons drawn. “If you had bothered to look at the walls of the den, you’d have noticed the graduation picture that included the eight of us. Or maybe the Beacon Academy diploma,” Matt said. “You guys are huntsman and huntresses?” a thug asked in fear. Razor brought his claws together and a large ball of blue fire formed, far more powerful than the ones before. Matt drew a glyph on his scythe and it became cloaked in electricity. Ash drew several kunai knives with dust lased paper bombs on them, taking a throwing position, and the rest pointed their weapons in a gun mode. “Take a hint!” Matt and Razor yelled in unison as they all fired. The thugs were blown down the street. They scurried to their feet and ran for their lives, not caring about their bikes.

                “That was so COOL!” Ruby squealed. She ran up to the members of team RAZR and started looking at all their weapons with fascination. “Looks like you got a real weapon head here, don’t you Matt?” Razor said as he held out his claws for Ruby to see. “What are they called?” Ruby asked Razor. “The Chop Paws,” he said. She moved on to Ash who introduced her fans as her Dark Stars. Zaffre had named his arm Auto Buster and began to tell her about it when Narco called him over to one of the bikers’ abandoned bikes. Ruby finally reached Rouge. She was fascinated by her scissors named Hemming Edge and her threads know as Cross Stitch.

                Yang and Blake noticed that Zaffre and Narco were going over one of the abandoned bikes. They walked over and saw what they were looking at. “Is that what I think it is?” Yang asked. “Gauges off a Vale Roller 388,” Narco said. “Can we?” Blake asked, questioning the ethics. “It’s fine. This is how I got that ridiculously huge stockpile of scrap parts. Razor chases thugs out of town all the time and they never come back for their rides so I use them for parts,” Zaffre said. He held up his hand and a screwdriver popped out of his mechanical finger. He removed the gauges and gave them to Yang.

                The next day Yang went back to work on her bike, this time with Blake’s help. After a few more days, Yang finished tightening the last bolt. She stood up and look over to Blake who smiled back at her. They were both wearing coveralls and were covered with grease. “Looks like you finished,” they heard from behind them. Matt, Narco, and Zaffre walked in with their motorcycles. “Zaffre, what are you doing here?” Yang asked. “After all the trouble we put in to find the parts, I wanted to be here for the first turn over,” Zaffre explained. “And of course, the first ride,” Narco added. Yang got on and looked to Blake, patting the seat behind her. “What?” Blake asked. “Get on,” Yang said. Blake smiled and hopped on the back. Yang kicked the started and Bumblebee roared to life. The four bikes took off and cruised off campus. They got on the freeway and really opened up. “How’s she feel?” Narco called over to Yang. “Even better than before!” she yelled back and they cruised down the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on Lulu and Narco visit http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-MRLN-654026973
> 
> For more information on the members of team RAZR visit http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-RAZR-654148832


	4. Bored Out of Our Beacon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As things calm down after Volume two the young Beacon professors of team MRLN find the current generation of students aren't as wild and crazy as previous students generations. So team RWBY gets roped into some wild antics introducing them to another of Beacon's young professors.

                It had been several months since the members of team RWBY had been at Beacon. The Vytal Festival Tournament was coming up and the girls had been training hard for it. However, today they had decided to take the day off. It was a perfect day to do so. It was raining cats and dogs and no one, especially Blake wanted to go outside. The four girls each sat on their beds in silence. Ruby was had on her headphones and was reading a copy of Weapons magazine, Weiss was reading a fashion magazine, Yang’s was about motorcycles, and Blake was reading a copy of Ninjas of Love hidden behind a textbook.

                There was the sound of a spark at the power outlet. Weiss punched the bed above her to get Ruby’s attention. Ruby took of her headphones and asked, “What?” “Matt’s coming,” Weiss answered. Matt flew out of the outlet, but instead of flying into the bookshelf he fell on the floor and skidded to a halt in the middle of the room on his stomach. The four girls crawled to the end of their beds and looked at him. Just then, Narco staggered out of a shadow in the corner of the room and fell stomach first on top of Matt. There was a knock on the door. “It’s open,” Yang said, still looking at Matt and Narco. Ringo and Lulu staggered in and fell on top of the other two.

                All four girls raised an eyebrow. “Are you guys drunk?” Weiss asked. “Bored,” they all said in a droning manner. “What?” Yang asked. “Bored,” they said again. “Bored?” Blake questioned. Matt perked up at the bottom of the dog pile, “Bored! We are bored.” “Why because of the rain?” Ruby asked. “No, because the students of this generation don’t do anything crazy,” Matt said. “What do you mean by crazy?” Ruby asked. “Pranks,” Lulu said. “Parties,” Ringo added. “Food fights,” Narco said. “Shenanigans,” Matt said, consolidating the ideas. “Hey what about that food fight we had with team JNPR a few weeks ago?” Yang wanted to know. “Not big enough,” Lulu said. “Or often enough,” Ringo added. “Can we go back a minute? What are you guys talking about?” Blake asked.

                The members of team MRLN snaked their ways out of their dog pile and pulled up some bean bag chairs. They plopped down and began to tell their story. “I don’t mean to sound clique, but when we were in school we did some pretty crazy stuff,” Matt explained. “They used to call us Magic MRLN because of how we could do the craziest things and still get away with it, it had to be magic,” Ringo added. “Like what?” Ruby asked. “Oh let’s see, there was the time we snuck into the teacher’s lounge and switched Oobleck’s coffee with decaf. In the middle of our class, he started to slow down like a car that just ran out of gas,” Matt said. “Then there was the time we switched Goodwitch’s crop with a gag one. It was rigged so when she smacked something with it, it would snap off, a pole would extend out, and a flashy red flag with the word ‘Smack!’ comically written on it would unfurl. Her face turned redder than Ruby’s cloak,” Narco added. “Oh and the time we started that water war between the two dorm buildings. With the two buildings running parallel to each other, we had students in every window throwing water balloons and shooting water guns at each other. It looked like two old fashioned sailing ships in a broadside cannon battle,” Ringo said. “Don’t forget that food fight we started. We had just about every student at Beacon throwing slop at each other and charging people with baguette swords,” Lulu added. “And then there is our crown jewel. The time we threw the biggest party in the history of Beacon, in Ozpin’s office,” Matt said.

                The girls were stunned. “You did what?!” they all yelled in unison, leaning over the edges of their beds. “Yeah. Ozpin and Goodwitch had gone to Mistral on business and Port and Obleck took the night off. The campus was completely devoid of teachers so we made our move. Food, drinks, live music thanks to the fact one of our classmates was a great musician, and we lit the place like a laser light show,” Matt boasted. You making that up,” Yang said. Matt threw his wallet up to her and said, “Second from the bottom.” She jumped down from her bed and opened the wallet. A long folding insert began to unfold with over a dozen pictures. The other girls crowded around as they looked at the pictures. There were pictures of Matt and Ringo, team MRLN, team RAZR, several pictures of teams they haven’t met, a picture from his graduation, the graduation after party, and then there was the picture they were looking for. It was of Matt. He was sitting in Ozpin’s desk, wearing Ozpin’s spare glasses, holding Ozpins spare cane, and favorite coffee mug. He sat there like a king on his thrown and the other members of teams MRLN, RAZR, and members of a few other teams and behind them, dozens of dancing students. “Oh my dust,” Yang said. “They actually did it,” Blake continued. “And you actually got away with it? How did you get rid of the evidence?” Weiss asked. “That my dear Schnee, is the magic of team MRLN,” Matt answered. “Then what did you do with it all?” Blake asked. “Tunnels,” Ringo said. The members of team RWBY each raised an eyebrow. Ringo could see their confusion and explained, “Over the years I have been able to use plants with my semblance to dig an extensive network of tunnels and caverns under Beacon. We’ve used them to sneak in supplies for our, as Matt calls them shenanigans and to hide incriminating evidence where no one can find it.”

                “So then Ozpin has no idea you guys have done any of this?” Weiss asked. “Oh he knows,” Matt said. “He what?!” the four girls yelled in shock. “The week after graduation, I cropped together all the pictures and video I had taken of our various shenanigans, and set them to music to make a video. I then mailed it to Ozpin, knowing he couldn’t do anything to us anymore even if he would. He actually wrote back saying he thought the whole think was a scream,” Matt said.

                “The point is the students of this generation don’t do enough crazy stuff anymore,” Matt said as he leaned his head back. Yang folded Matt’s wallet back up and threw it back to Matt saying, “So let’s do something crazy.” Matt caught the wallet without looking. Then he looked to Yang, “You serious?” “Sounds like fun,” she said. “I’m in,” Ruby said with enthusiasm. “Well why not,” Blake agreed. “Are we seriously considering this?” Weiss asked. “If they did half of what they claimed to do, then we are in the presence of masters. We can’t fail,” Yang said gesturing to the members of team MRLN. Matt smiled, “Narco get ‘the planning board’,” Matt said.

                The mechanic jumped up from his seat and into a shadow. He came back out pulling a large chalkboard with him. “What’s that for?” Ruby asked. Matt and the two female members of team MRLN got up and joined Narco at the board. “This my dear students, is how we plan,” Matt said gesturing at the board. He pick up a piece of chalk and wrote ‘ideas’ across the top. He clapped his hands together saying, “Ok people, ideas, we need ideas. What is our shenanigan going to be?” The members of MRLN all began to pace. “We could paint the school pink,” Yang suggested. “To big for your first time and too clique,” Matt said. “We could put some crazy outfits on the statue in the courtyard,” Weiss suggested. “Too small,” Ringo said. “We could blow something up,” Blake tried. “No explosives,” Lulu said. “We could build a giant paper mache death stalker and walk it into the cafeteria,” Ruby said. “NO GRIM!” the members of team MRLN yelled in unison.

                “We probably should’ve told you the rules of MRLN shenanigans,” Lulu said. “What rules?” Blake asked. Matt flipped the board around and there was a list on the other side. At the top read “The Laws of Shenanigan”. Matt picked up a pointing stick from the board and smacked the board, pointing at the title. “Class is in session. Today’s lesson is the Laws of Shenanigan. These are the guide lines that we always follow when pulling off pranks to make sure that they are safe, funny, and most importantly, that we get away with it,” Matt said. He pointed at the first rule. “Rule one, no fire or lightning based explosives. They are dangerous and unpredictable,” he said. He pointed at the next rule. “Rule two, do not threaten the security of Vale. Don’t do anything to risk letting grim into the city.” He moved down. “Rule three, do not do anything that has too high a risk of people getting hurt. At worst a prank should hurt one’s ego not one’s body.” Once again he moved down. “Rule four and this one is more flexible than others, the best time to prank is when Goodwitch is gone. Strike when you know she will be on the other side of the campus, in town, or out of the kingdom. Unless of course, when she is the target,” he said with a devilish smile. He moved down to the next rule. “Rule five, do not cause any damage or make any mess that cannot be fixed or cleaned by Goodwitch and her telekinesis. That means no burning things down or not staining the pages of every book in the library black.” He came to the next rule. “Rule six, never prank when Ozpin is out of town. He is the only one who out ranks Goodwitch and has a far better sense of humor. He is far more likely that he will let you get away with it as long as you clean it up.” He moved to the last rule. “Rule seven, and this is the most important.” He looked straight at them and emphasized, “NO GRIM! Or grim based pranks, fake or otherwise. Grim cause panic and panic leads to trampling and people getting hurt in the confusion. So no making fake Grim, no letting Grim loose in populated areas, and no claiming there’s a Grim attack.”

                “Ok so let’s try this again,” Yang said as she sat down. She popped of her boots to get comfortable, figuring they would be there a while. “Ewe! Yang your boot treads are full of gum,” Weiss complained when she noticed the hard mass of blackened candy. “It’s not my fault the ground is covered in used gum,” Yang shot back. “Better the gum sticks to the shoe then the shoe sticking to the floor,” Ruby said. The members of team MRLN all looked at Ruby. “That’s it,” Matt said. “What’s it?” Blake asked. “that’s our prank, we stick everyone to the floor. Narco, do we have any more of that dust activated instant drying super glue?” Matt asked the mechanic. “Not sure. We got a lot of junk in the tunnels. However, even if we do it is probably inert by now,” Narco explained. “I don’t get it. What do we need glue for?” Ruby asked. “Simple. We coat the floors of a hallway outside of a class that people are dying to get out of, like Port’s last period on Fridays. As the students are practically running out of that class, we activate the glue and their all stuck,” Matt explained. “It’s brilliant!” Ringo said ecstatically.  “Ok we have an idea, so where do we start?” Yang asked. “Step one, we need glue and a lot of it. To the Lab!” Matt said enthusiastically as her herded everyone out.

                Luckily for them the rain had decided to stop. They started walking across campus towards the school buildings. They decided to take a shortcut through the library. As they walked through they heard a yelp and the sound of a small ice blast. The group looked down one of the aisles to see Jaune. He was frozen in place, his hair blown back and the whole front of his body covered in ice. They noticed he was stuck in the pose of taking a book off the shelf. Matt noticed a small piece of paper sticking out between the books. He walked over gave Jaune a lite chop on the top of the head. The ice on his body shattered and he shook himself out. “What the heck was that?!” Jaune demanded to know. Matt pulled the slip of paper out from between the books and examined it. On it was a patterned design of ice dust laced into the paper. Suddenly he burst into laughter. “What is it Matt?” Ringo asked. He calmed down and handed her the piece of paper. “It’s one of ours,” he said. Ringo, Narco, and Lulu looked at the piece of paper. “Holy dust it is,” Narco said. “What are you talking about?” Ruby asked. “One of the best pranks was the ice trap library. We made hundreds of small paper ice dust bombs and hid them between books in the library. They were rigged so when a book that was next to the charges was being remove, it would detonate and freeze the person trying to pull out the book,” Matt explained. “I can’t believe there were still any left. The last time one went off was during the first month of our senior year and we had originally planted them during our freshman year,” Ringo said. “Well what books was it between?” Blake asked. Matt looked at the books. “Well that explains it. ‘101 Tales of a Huntsman’ by Peter Port and ‘101 ways to be a Hero for Those with Low Self Esteem’,” he said. They looked to Jaune but he had already left.

                The group continued on and they reached the class building. They stopped in front of a large steel double door. As soon as they did they heard an explosion from inside and dust and smoke forced its way out from between the cracks in the door. The walked in and found a large open laboratory for dust research. Equipment was blow all over the place; energy drink cans were piled high all over, and covered in soot. “What the heck happened?” Suddenly, a person started darting around the room like Dr. Oobleck. “Well that didn’t work. Note to self don’t experiment with fire dust next to an active Bunsen burner,” the person said in a very fast hyperactive voice which they could tell was that of a young woman. She continued to dash around the room, stopping every so often to mix something, check a microscope, or clean up part of the explosion. “Becky,” Matt said. The woman dashed to another spot. “Becky,” Matt tried again. Again the woman didn’t hear him. As she passed them Matt grabbed her, “Becky!” he yelled at her. She reached up and removed a set of headphones and said, “Oh hey Matt. Good to see you. I we don’t see each other enough. Oh and you got the rest of MRLN with you, and guests. You should have called, I would have made a pie and…” ‘Becky! Slow down!” Matt yelled at her. She came to a dead stop, looking at him startled, and then took a long sip of a highly caffeinated energy drink.

                “Take a breath and slow down,” he told her. The girl took a few deep breaths and said with a much slower tone, “Ok.” Matt let go of her and took the canned energy drink from her hands. “You got to get off this stuff. You’re getting worse than your uncle,” Matt said as he waved the can. “Matt who is this?” Ruby asked. “This is Professor Oobleck,” he said introducing the young woman. “Huh?” the girls of team RWBY said in unison, confused by the previous statement. “I thought Oobleck was a dude,” Yang said. Matt raised an eyebrow in confusion but then realized what they were thinking. He snickered a little and explained, “No your thinking of Bartholomew Oobleck. This is Rebecca Oobleck.” “Just call me Becky,” the young woman said. “Wait so you’re what, his daughter?” Weiss asked. “Niece actually, as well as the brains of team SBLM (sublime),” Becky answered. “You may have noticed her in some of the memories that were in my wallet,” Matt said. “How come we’ve never met this teach until now?” Blake asked. “I don’t teach freshman courses,” Becky explained.

                The girls gave her a good looking over. She was wearing a green sweater vest with a white short-sleeve collared shirt and a black bowtie. She wore kaki cargo shorts and green and white sneakers. She had a white lab coat with green splotches all over it and her emblem in the bottom corner of a beaker shooting sparks out the top, and on her back was a small black backpack. She bore a striking resemblance to her uncle with the same round glasses and had the same color of hair tied into two short messy ponytails and a black hairband with a small flashlight on the side and a magnifying glass hanging on a wire like arm above the right lens of her glasses.

                “So what brings you guys down to my little powder keg?” Becky asked. Matt put his arm around her shoulder and started to walk her towards the window. “Becky my dear mad scientist, team MRLN is going back into the pranking business in order to pass on our ways to the next generation of pranksters,” Matt said. “I assume that the four freshmen back there are your idea of the next generation,” Becky said as she looked out the window. She produced another energy drink from her lab coat, cracked it open, and took a sip. “Alright, so what do you need?” she asked. “Glue,” he said. “Dust activated, instant drying, and strong as cement but water sailable so we can clean it up easily,” he then specified. Becky chugged down the rest of the energy drink and she began to vibrate. Matt took a step back saying under his breath, “Here we go again.” Becky began to dash about in her hyperactive state. She flipped through books, checked chemicals, and examining slides. “How much do you need?” she asked in a fast tone. “Enough to cover the entirety of the south hallway of the main building,” he said.

                As Becky did her speedy research, the members of team RWBY watched in awe. “Is she sure she is the slower Oobleck?” Ruby asked jokingly. As she talked with the others a light fixture above her had been loosened by the earlier blast. It gave way and began to fall towards Ruby. Becky was busy looking into a microscope, but she still reacted. In a flash, she had reached into her lab coat and pulled out a test tube. She then threw it at the fixture and it shattered. As soon as it made contact with the air, the green slime contained within it expanded into some kind of foam that stuck the broken fixture to the wall.  Ruby and the others looked up to see what had almost happened. “Whoa, that could have been ugly,” Ruby said. “Always pay attention to your surroundings. Even if it doesn’t look like you are,” Becky said not looking up from her microscope. “Ok, I can do it but it will take time and a lot of materials,” Becky said. She walked over to a large tank at the side of the room. She pulled a rip cord on the strap of her backpack and it began to change. It unfolded and enveloped her. It became a large mechanized armored suit. With the suits superior strength, she slung two tanks over her shoulders and brought them to a work station. She collapsed the suit back into a backpack and turned to Matt. “Ok I’m going to need a few days,” she told Matt as he gathered more chemicals. “So out, out, out!” she said as she herded everyone out and slammed the door.  “Uh oh, FIRE IN THE HOLD!” she yelled from inside and there was another explosion.

                Several days went by and then it was time. It was four in the morning on Friday and the members of team RWBY were fast asleep. Suddenly they were woken by the sound of a spark in the electrical socket. Matt flew out of the socket, skidding to a halt on his feet. Narco soon followed, pulling Ringo and Lulu with him. They were all wearing solid black clothes and black beanies. “It’s time girls,” Matt said. “Uh, what time is it?” Ruby asked trying to rub the daze of sleep from her eyes. “Four a.m. optimal prank setting time,” Matt said as Ringo threw black outfits to the girls. “Hurry up, get changed, and meet us in the tunnels,” Matt said as he followed Narco into a shadow. The girls changed and Ringo and Lulu pulled them over so they were standing over a shadow. Lulu took out her scroll, sent a message to Narco, and a second later the fell through the shadow and came out in an underground cavern.

                They looked around to see they were in a large cavern with heavy roots serving as an infrastructure and had large bulb like plants that were emitting light. Matt and Narco were gathering tanks and some sort of sprayers. They walked back over and handed each of them a sprayer. “Alright, here’s the plan. We use these sprayers to coat the floors of the hallway with Becky’s special glue. It will dry and become unnoticeable but will not stick just yet. Before the last bell rings, we wait at the ends of the hall. When the students start flooding out, we wait until as many as possible get into the hall. We then activate the dust in the glue and everyone’s shoes will be stuck to the ground. Becky rigged the formula so that it will lose effect after five minutes and unstick. Then when the janitor mops the floors tonight, he will destroy any evidence for us,” Matt explained. 

                Narco guided them through a shadow and they entered the hallway. The eight of them began to spray the floors. As they were doing so, they heard footsteps. They all dashed to hiding spots. As they were hiding, Goodwitch walked down the intersecting hallway carrying a flashlight. “What the heck is she do up this late?” Yang whispered in a demanding tone. “I don’t know,” Matt whispered back. Goodwitch looked down the hall and then continued down the other hall. They came out of their hiding spots. “Everyone alright?” Matt asked everyone. He looked around the group and asked, “Where is Ruby?” “Help,” they heard a whisper. They turned to realize that she had hidden in a locker and locked herself in. They got her out and finished their work.

                Later that day they returned to the hallway. It was three fifty eight and they were ready for the fruits of their labor. Team RWBY was waiting on one end of the hall and team MRLN at the other. Matt put his scroll to his ear, “You guys ready?” he asked team RWBY through the device. “Check,” Yang said. The clock struck four and the bell rang. Students began to swarm out of the classrooms groaning from their boredom and began to make their way to anywhere but there. “Now,” Matt said into his scroll. “Now,” Yang communicated on their side. Lulu and Weiss touched the floor to activate the glue. There was a slight and unnoticeable glow and the glue activated. Suddenly all of the students were stuck to the ground. They all tried to pull themselves free but failed. Both teams RWBY and MRLN stifled laughs as they watched.   “Eh hem,” team RWBY heard from behind them and their eyes all went wide. They slowly turned their heads to see Professor Goodwitch standing behind them with her arms crossed and an angry look on her face. The girls turned back and looked down the hall to team MRLN with horrified looks on their faces. Team MRLN saw this and ran for it. “Cowards,” Weiss said under her breath. They turned back to Goodwitch. They all let out small guilty laughes, knowing they were dead. “Ah, hello Professor Goodwitch. How is you day going?” Ruby asked. Goodwitch tried to smack the wall with her crop to shut them up. When she swung it, it snapped at the handle and a thin pole extended out. A red flag with the word “Smack!” written on it unfurled. The girls struggled to contain their laughter. Matt and the other members of team MRLN popped out of a shadow against the wall behind Goodwitch one over the other with Matt on top followed by Ringo, Lulu, and Narco. They all laughed. “They’re right! Sometimes the old ways are the best ways!” Narco laughed. Goodwitch turned to yell at them, but they vanished back into the shadow before she could. She turned back to team RWBY, even angrier than before. “We’re doomed,” Ruby said in a small fearful voice.

                The girls of team RWBY walked into their room and flopped on their beds. “I can believe they hung us out to dry,” Yang said. “I can’t believe Ozpin had left town on business on short notice,” Blake said. “I can’t believe we have to wash all the bullheads in the hanger,” Weiss complained. “Well look at it this way. Now we have a target for another prank,” Ruby said.

                The next day Goodwitch marched the girls into the hanger. The four had opted to wear something they didn’t mind getting wet over their usual outfits. As expected, Narco was nowhere to be seen. Goodwitch used her semblance to levitate a pile of buckets and sponges. “I expect to be able to see my reflection in the hull of every one of them by the end of tomorrow,” Goodwitch said in a stern tone and left. The girls picked up their tools and begun scrubbing the hull of the first bullhead. It took them an hour but they finally finished cleaning it. They stood back and looked at their work with pride. Of course then they looked down the hanger and the realization of all the work ahead of them hit. “Ugh, at this rate we’ll be second years by the time we’re down!” Yang complained.

                “If you’re lucky,” they heard from behind them. They turned to see team MRLN and Becky walking up. “What are you guys doing here?” Weiss scoffed. “Yeah you threw us to the wolves and ran,” Blake added. “Yeah we forgot to tell you rule eight, when it all hits fan its every man for himself,” Matt said. “Yeah we kind of figured that out. So come to watch our punishment for your own entertainment?” Weiss asked. “No. We are here to fulfill rule nine. If one man is caught, we all serve the punishment,” Ringo explained. “You didn’t really think we’d hang you out to dry and let you clean all these bullheads by yourselves did you?” Narco asked.

                The girls felt a little less scornful of their seniors but not completely comforted. “Still even with you help this will take forever,” Ruby said. “Ruby just because we a masters pranksters doesn’t mean we’ve never been caught. Do you know how many times Goodwitch made us scrub bullheads when we were students? We’ve figured out a few tricks to get it done fast,” Matt said. Ringo threw some seeds at the base of several bullheads and snapped. The seeds grew into some sort of sentient vines that picked up sponges and began scrubbing the hulls.  Lulu threw out some water and ice dust crystals and turned them into golems. The golems then began to clean the remaining bullheads. “And with that we can put our feet up, crack open a drink, and take it easy,” Narco said. The nine of them sat down and took it easy as the plants and golems did their work for them.

                Narco brought in a projector he had and they spent the afternoon watch movies. As the evening rolled in they began to smell something. They looked around to see Narco had vanished when they weren’t looking. “Hey where is Narco?” Yang asked. Ruby caught a whiff of something in the air. “Does anyone else smell pork?” she asked. “I smell chicken,” said Weiss. “No it’s beef,” Yang said. “No way, it’s definitely salmon,” Blake said as she slightly drooled.  Matt took a whiff. “It smells like he’s almost done,” he said as he stood up. They followed the smell away from the movie and down the hanger. They turned the corner to find Narco standing over a barbeque. He wore an apron with the words “King of Q” on it and his welding goggles down. There was a long table set and the smell of cooked meat filled the air. “The thing you may not know about Narco, is that he is an amazing chef. Barbeque is his specialty,” Matt told them. Narco turned to the others and moved his goggles up. “Ah good you’re here,” Narco said. He turned back and started bringing out food and putting it on the table. “Ok we got ribs, both spare and baby back, beef and pork, in sweet, spicy, and Grizzle family recipe. Then we got burgers, hotdogs, chicken wings, legs, and breast. There are medium steaks for Matt, and well done for me and Lulu. Baked beans, grilled mac and cheese, french fries, Coleslaw, and grilled vegetables. We got pulled pork using Matt’s family recipe,” he said as he brought out the food. “The secret is slow cooking in a pool of root beer,” Matt said. Narco continued, “Straight from the sea we got salmon, mahi-mahi, and shrimp.” Narco paused and then went around the corner to get something. “Matt, give me a hand with this,” Narco called from around the corner. He went to help and the two of them came back carrying a hug heavy plater. They set down the plater with a huge roasted pig on it. “Last but not least, the piece de resistance, the Grizzle family speciality, whole roasted wild boar,” Narco said proudly. Next he brought out the condiments listing them off, “Alright now we got ketchup, mustard, mayo, barbeque sauce in sweet, spicy, and Grizzle family recipe, and finally hot sauce in mild, hot, and Grizzle family five alarm burn your tongue out of your mouth.”

                Everyone stood lined up mouths watering at the food. “There’s got to be enough food here to feed the whole school,” Ruby said. “More like six teams. Back in the day they used to call us Munching MRLN,” Lulu said. “They used to say that the acronym for team MRLN stood for Munching Ravenously Like Neanderthals,” Ringo joked. “Well then let’s get munching,” Someone said. Everyone looked down the line to see Razor, Ash, Zaffre, and Rouge drooling with them. “Where the dust did you guys come from?” Yang asked in surprise. “I can smell a Narco barbeque from across the kingdom,” Razor answered. “We just followed him,” Ash added. “What is that amazing smell?” they heard behind them. They turned to see Nora floating in, pulled by the smell itself and followed by the rest of team JNPR. “Well dig in,” Narco said gesturing towards the food. With that they all pounced on the food. “Well this is quite a spread,” They all heard from behind them.

                They turned to see Ozpin standing there leaning on his cane in front of him. “Ozpin! We were just,” the members of team RWBY yelped. He held up a hand to stop their babbling. “It’s alright, I spoke with Ms. Goodwitch. I hear team MRLN is getting back to its old tricks,” he said with an amused tone. “The students of this generation need to learn to have a little fun,” Matt said as he threw a rib bone away. “May I at least assume that you are still following those same rules you made when you were students?” Ozpin asked. “But of course,” Ringo answered. “Well as long as you stick to those rules and stay out of Goodwitch’s way, I have no problems with it. Now if you don’t mind?” He asked gesturing to the food. “Take as much as you want Oz,” Matt said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on Becky Oobleck go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-SBLM-654371737


	5. A Weekend in the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Impressed by the work team RWBY did in Mountain Glenn, Ozpin sends them on another field assignment under the watch of Matt and Ringo. However, things quickly start to go wrong. Will the girls fail to succeed or will someone one save them.

                The girls of team RWBY were in the library working on homework for professor Port’s class. Of course it they were bored out of their minds. “Man, Port’s homework is the worst,” Ruby complained. “I know half of the material is never talked about in class,” Weiss agreed. “Let alone on the test,” Blake added. “I don’t know if this will make you feel better,” They heard from above them. They looked up to see Matt and Ringo hanging off a vine upside-down. “Is it wrong that this doesn’t scare me anymore?” Weiss asked. “In our line of work, no,” Ringo answered. The two teachers flipped down at took a couple of seats. “As I was saying, I don’t know if this will make you feel better but we suffered through the same thing so you’re not alone,” Matt finished his thought.

                “So what brings are favorite less than sane dorm advisors slash teachers here today?” Yang asked jokingly.  “Well we are here to tell you that we’re going on a little field trip,” Ringo answered. The girls all raised an eyebrow and looked up from their work. “Ozpin was impressed by your performance during the Mountain Glenn mission and the following grim attack and wants to see more. So he has assigned Ringo and myself to take you out on a deep territory mission,” Matt explained. “So we’re going to be shadowing you?” Blake asked. “No we are going to be shadowing you. You four will make all the decisions barring any extreme circumstances. We will just be there to protect you as a last resort,” Matt said. “So basically we’re going on a mission? Like real huntresses?” Ruby asked with glee. “Yep pack your bags, we leave at sunrise,” Matt said as he and Ringo got up. “Pack light, we’ll be on foot for a good part of this,” Ringo added. “And don’t bring Zwei,” Matt said seriously. “Wait then who will watch him?” asked Yang. “Well I talked Razor into covering my class as a guest lecturer so we can ask him to do it,” Matt said. “You think Zwei will like him?” Ruby asked. “Razor is part dog, of course they’ll get along,” Ringo said. “How did you even talk him into teaching you class? Razor doesn’t really seem like the teaching type,” Blake asked. “He needed something to do. He’s having his bar redone after the latest group of thugs rolled in,” Matt answered. “Be on the landing pad at dawn,” Ringo told them as she and Matt left. They had just turned the corner when they heard the girls cheer. Matt snickered.

                The next morning, the girls were waiting eagerly on the bullhead landing pad. Each one with a relatively small backpack. Matt and Ringo came to meet them. Razor had also joined them to see them off. “You girls ready?” Ringo asked. “Yeah!” the girls said. “Wait,” Matt said holding up a finger. He stepped behind Ruby and opened her pack and as he expected out popped one black and white corgi. “Ruby, what made you think you could get away with this twice?” Matt asked as he carefully removed the dog. Zwei started to lick his face. “Yeah I know you want to come but you can’t. You’ll love staying with Razor. He’s ‘your kind of people’,” Matt said jokingly as he handed the dog over to the wolf faunus. Razor and Zwei looked at each other and they smiled at each other. Clearly they liked each other. The six of them boarded the bullhead and it started to warm up. “Well, see you in a few days Razor you old dog. Have fun with the class and make sure you give Cardin a hard time. He doesn’t exactly see faunus as equals,” Matt told his friend. Razor frowned when he heard about Cardin’s view of faunus. “See you around!” Matt yelled to Razor as he hung out the side of the rising bullhead. Razor wave and Zwei barked goodbye.

                The bullhead ride was long, flying deep into the wilds of southern Vale. Matt had flipped his hood up over his eye and began to snore as he caught up on his sleep while Ringo played with her semblance, manipulating a plant she grew from a see in her hand. Blake was reading a small book she had brought, Weiss was reading through reports on the family company, Yang was playing a game on her scroll, and Ruby was listing to music on her headphones.

                Eventually Ringo looked out the window and then nudged Matt. “Huh, what?” he said as he woke up. “We’re almost there,” she said. Matt started to stretch out. The girls notice the two teachers getting their things together. “Are we there?” Ruby asked. “Almost, start getting you things together,” Matt said. “So what exactly is this mission anyway?” Blake asked. “Your mission is to retrieve an artifact located in the ruins of Talldome located in the Titus region of Vale,” He said. “What is Talldome?” Yang asked. “Talldome was once the holy temple of the religion of Maiden’s Light which believes that the old man from the story of the Four Maidens was a god and the four maidens were his prophets and that the grim are the torture souls of sinners that must be cleansed by fire. However, as the grimm became more powerful the religion lost favor and the temple was left to ruin,” Matt explained. “So then what is this artifact?” Ruby asked. “Apparently it is the final part of a set of the four maidens. The winter maiden to be specific,” Ringo said. “This sounds more like an errand than a job for a huntsman,” Weiss complained. “Not really. The Titus region is home to number of abandoned mines, dense forests, and various abandoned settlements. It’s loaded with grim and there is no place to land within several miles. There is also a flock of nevermores reported to be roosting in the mountains above the temple so we can’t just land at the temple. We’ll have to insert several miles away and hoof it to the temple,” Matt explained.

                The bullhead slowed down and came to a hover. “Looks like we’re here,” Matt said. He slid the hatch open and hung out the side. “What are you doing?!” Weiss yelled. “There’s nowhere to land. We’re going to have to jump!” he yelled back. “What?!” yelled Weiss. “You girls have been launched off a cliff without parachute. You can survive this!” Matt yelled as he let go of the hull. He fell out and whipped out his sword Storm Reaper, converting it into its hover board form, and surfed his way down at a casual speed. Ringo followed, using seeds in her bracelets to grow a huge leaf to use as a parachute. The girls followed her. Ruby jumped towards a tree and used her scythe to catch on branches to slow her decent. Weiss jumped down from glyph to glyph. Blake caught her Gambol Shroud on a branch with her ribbon and swung down to a safe landing. Yang just fired a bunch of shots on the way down to slow her fall.

                When they were all down, Matt waved to the bullhead to leave. “Ok so the temple is south southeast of here so, girls what do we do?” Matt asked. The girls gave him a funny look. “It’s your mission. We’re just observers,” He said gesturing to himself and Ringo. “Well we should probably start heading towards the temple,” Weiss suggested. “Good. So which way is that?” Ringo asked. Weiss spun around realizing she had no idea. “It’s that way,” Blake said pointing behind her.

                The six of them started out. They came across several Ursas and a death stalker but they were easily dispatched. As it began to get late they came across the ruins of a settlement. “Maybe we should make camp for the night,” Ruby suggested. The others agreed. They built a fire and rolled out their sleeping mats. Ringo used her semblance to grow a soft bed of moss to sleep on and Matt strung up a hammock he brought with him. “So who brought the food?” Yang asked. The girls all looked at each other, they had all forgotten to pack food. Matt and Ringo had each had a look of both disappointment and amusement. “Looks like we’re going to have to throw them a bone,” Matt said to Ringo. Ringo reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a seed. She threw it in the dirt a few feet from her and held out her hand to focus her semblance. Within seconds, the seed had grown from a seed into a full fruit tree. As they watched the tree blossoms and from the flowers came fruit. Matt and Ringo each grabbed a fruit and began to eat them. The girls followed suit and began to eat as well. After that, they all turned in, save for Blake who took the first watch.

                The night was uneventful. As the sun rose they packed their gear and continued towards the temple. They continued to walk through the woods until they came to a clearing. They decided to rest for a while and eat lunch. Ringo grew another fruit tree and began eating. “So does anyone have an idea how much farther it is?” Ruby asked as they ate. “Well I’d say about another day,” Matt estimated. Just then they heard a rustling in the trees. They looked over and saw five giant nevermores jump up out of the trees. “MOVE!” Matt yelled as the six of them scrambled. They made towards the tree line but were surrounded. They all drew their weapons. Yang and Blake charged towards one nevermore while Ruby and Weiss took another. Matt and Ringo each took one themselves. Ruby fired for propulsion and slashed at the nevermore but it dodged. Weiss drew a glyph for Ruby who bounced off it back towards the evil bird as she stabbed at it with her rapier. Yang tried to punch the nevermore in the beak while Blake aimed for its belly. Ringo separated Crooked Sprout into two machetes and jumped on to the back of her nevermore to slash at its back. Matt managed to bolt up and stab one nevermore through the chest and then bolted to another one. He whipped off his jacket and let his Free Talon blades fly to swarm one of the birds.

                However, he could see this wasn’t going well. “Ringo stick them down!” Matt called. Ringo reconnected her boomerang and threw it. It curved, flying over each nevermore dropping seeds along the way. She held up a hand to focus and large vines sprung from the ground to hold down the birds. However, it didn’t hold them. The girls were backed against a low cliff in the clearing, one of the nevermores about to strike. “No!” Ringo yelled. While she was distracted another nevermore struck her and she passed out. “Ringo, NO!” Matt yelled when he saw her go down. As he was distracted another nevermore slashed across his back and he went down too. “Oh no!” yelled Ruby. The girls dodged some incoming attacks and grabbed Matt and Ringo. They moved their unconscious forms against a small cliff and braced for the next attack. The Nevermores charged towards them.

Suddenly one of the nevermores was shot through the eye and went down. The others broke off their attack. The girls look to where the shot came from. On a high cliff in the distance, they could make out a man. Another shot rang out and a cable struck the cliff side above them and went taught. Up on the cliff, the stranger’s sniper rifle compacted into a sleek metal briefcase and then a set of zip line wheels popped out of the bottom. He hooked them to the cable and jumped off the edge holding on to the case with one hand and holding onto his hat with the other. He disconnected from the cable and landed with his back to the girls, still holding his hat, and stood up straight with confidence.

                He had black hair under a gambler’s style hat with an ace of spades playing card sticking out of the band. He wore a red short-sleeve collared shirt under a black vest and black slacks. He wore sleek black dress shoes and had the emblem of a spade with wings on his back.

                Just then a man on a Caramel colored horse broke through the trees firing at the nevermores to ward them off. He hopped off the horse next to the other stranger. He was wearing a black shirt with an amber vest and brown pants. He had cowboy boots with spurs, a light brown cowboy hat, and a long light brown over coat with an emblem of a sheriff badge and a horseshoe. Around his waist was a belt with a pair of holsters holding two revolvers with spare dust rounds, and over his shoulder was a bandoleer of dust rounds for the lever action repeater on his back.

                The first stranger with the briefcase looked over his shoulder to the girls. They could see he had a pair of thin sunglasses sitting on the end of his nose so they could see his red eyes. “Are you girls alright?” he asked in a smooth tone. The other stranger looked back for a second and they could see his amber eyes. “Uh we’re fine but our teachers are hurt,” Ruby said. He looked past them to see Matt and Ringo out cold. “Eh, Matt and Ringo have had worse,” he said as he pushed his sunglasses up to his eyes while he looked to his partner. “Who are you?” Ruby asked. “Name’s Lonan,” said the man with the brief case. “Scotch,” said the other with a western accent. “Shall we Scotch?” Lonan asked. “Let’s fill them with lead,” Scotch said. The girls were confused. They knew Matt and Ringo?

                Lonan converted his briefcase into a submachine gun and Scotch drew his revolvers. Lonan took a knee, aiming his gun. Scotch charged towards the nevermores as Lonan covered his advance. Scotch fired several lightning dust rounds to stun the birds as he slid under them. He converted the revolvers. The barrels flipped up and two lassos popped out. He swung them and lassoed two of the nevermores and pulled them back. The two birds turned back to him. He disconnected one lasso and pulled the trigger on the other to wind in the other. He flew towards the nevermore converting his other revolver into a buoy knife like form. He landed on its back. He stabbed it in the wing joint and jumped of converting his other revolver to a knife as it fell from the sky. He landed turning back to the other. The nevermore charged at Scotch but he was ready. He converted his knives back to guns. He voided the drums and loaded fire dust rounds, and whipped the drums back in. As the nevermore charged at him he jumped towards it. The girls were stupefied when he flew strait through the nevermore. They heard some shots inside the grim as small explosions blew out of its stomach. Scotch flew out the other side as if he was a ghost. He spun on his spurs to see the other nevermore getting up. He holstered his revolvers and drew his repeater. He began to reload it one round at a time as he walked towards wounded grim as it struggled to get up. He started to fire ice dust rounds at it. Large ice crystals began to grow across the beast, preventing it from moving. As he reached the creature he converted his repeater to a halberd axe. He swung the halberd firing a round for acceleration and took off the beast’s head.

                While Scotch dealt with his targets, Lonan took on his own two. They threw razor sharp feathers at Lonan but he just stood there with a hand on his hip. Amazingly not one feather struck him even though one did come within an inch of his head but he didn’t even flinch. He drew a few playing cards from his a pouch on the back of his belt. He threw them out in a fan pattern at the grim. When they hit, they exploded in balls of fire. One of the nevermores circled back as on fell to the ground and skidded towards Lonan. He stepped to the side and pressed a button on the handle of the briefcase. A knife handle popped out of the side and he pulled out the blade. As the grim skidded past he stabbed the blade into it, leaving the blade sticking out of the creature. The grim turned back and tried again and again Lonan stepped out of the way and left another blade stabbed into the nevermore. This continued over and over, each time the nevermore getting slower and slower. Eventually the grim collapsed in front of him. He pressed another button on the handle of the briefcase and a new handle popped out but this one was different. He drew it and a two foot long short sword unfolded. He stepped up the nevermore and rested his foot on its beak. He then stabbed the sword into its head and the beast was dead. He withdrew the sword, folded it and returned it to the case. He pressed a button on his case and it opened. The knives he had left in the nevermore floated up and returned themselves to the case and it closed.

                The other nevermore flew up behind him as he finished of the other. He reacted, using his briefcase to block the beast’s talons. It swooped back and tried again. This time Lonan struck it in the beak with a round swing of the case. It circled back. He pressed a button a several blades popped out the side of the case. He swung the case up, stabbing the blades into its underbelly leaving the blades behind. As the nevermore turned back it was clearly moving slower. Lonan converted his case to a submachine gun and fired a volley. Amazingly the shots hit the nevermore’s eyes. It continued to fly towards him. He converted the case back to a briefcase and drew his short sword and converted it to a kama scythe. As the nevermore passed over, he ducked under slashing along the underside of the beast killing it.

                With the grim dead, they all disintegrated and the two strangers walked over to where the grim had fallen as Lonan recalled his blades. They pick up what looked like large gem stones and put them in Lonan’s briefcase. The two strangers walked back to the girls as. “That was awesome,” Yang said in awe. ‘Horse hocky, that was nothing,” Said Scotch as they walk past the girls to the injured Matt and Ringo. They both knelt to check on the teachers. Scotch snapped in Matt’s face as he said, “Come on bug zapper, you’ve taken worse than this.” Scotch was about to slap him to see if it would elicit a response when Matt’s hand flew up and grabbed the Scotch’s hand. “What have I told you about calling me bug zapper?” Matt sarcastically asked the cowboy. “Oh, hey Whisky, stop,” he heard Ringo saying. Matt turned his head to see Scotch’s horse licking Ringo’s face. She used a seed to grow a carrot and gave it to the horse. Matt put his hand to his head. “Scotch Marshal and Lonan Straight, how long has it been?” Matt asked. “Our last annual party at the Moon’s Den I’d say,” answered Scotch. “Yeah that’s right,” Matt said as he tried to get up. He cringed in pain. “We need to get someplace safe and look these two over,” Lonan said. “Right,” Scotch said as he whistled over his horse. Scotch and Lonan put the two over the back of the horse. “There should be the ruins of an old mine about a mile from here. We can make camp and patch them up there,” said Scotch. “Someone grab my jacket,” Matt said and Ruby grabbed it.

                “Well I guess we should properly introduce ourselves,” said Lonan. “Lonan Straight, sniper, gambler, and huntsman,” Lonan said gesturing to himself. Scotch was next, “Scotch Marshal, Huntsman.” “Oh and this is Whiskey,” he said as he patted the horse on the back and it neighed. “Matt can we assume you went to Beacon with these guys?” Ruby asked. “You can,” he answered. “Scotch and Lonan are the leader and a member Becky Oobleck’s team, team SBLM.” Ruby walked up to Scotch. “Well you guys were amazing. You two managed to do something even Matt couldn’t,” she said. Matt scoffed, “like heck. The only reason me and Ringo bit it is because we were distracted by you guys getting you butts handed to you.” “He’s right. I’ve seen Matt take on twenty giant nevermores by himself and come out without a scratch,” Lonan said. “Speaking of coming out without a scratch, How did you not get hit by those nevermore feathers earlier?” Blake asked Lonan. “Luck,” he answered. “No seriously,” Blake said. “I’m serious. My semblance allows me to change the odds of anything. Basically I can turn a 1 in 100 chance to 99 in 100 if I wanted to,” Lonan said. “So that pretty much makes you unbeatable,” Yang said. “Not even close. I can change the odds that a rock will be there for a foe to trip on or the odds a bullet trajectory will be off. I can’t change the odds that my foe will make a certain choice. I can also affect the odds at a poker table or in the stock market,” he explained.

                “Well with that ability you could become a millionaire,” Weiss said. “I am. I made millions at poker tables across Remnant.” Scotch interrupted him, “Yeah until the casinos got wise to your little advantage and you were banned from every casino, race track, and back room poker game in Remnant.” Lonan gave a sigh of annoyance. “Yeah, that’s why I moved on to the stock market. Amazingly every time I bought stock in a company it did amazingly and every time I shorted a stock the company took a hit,” he said in a sarcastic tone. “One time I short sold the Schnee Dust Company and a rather large shipment of dust ended up in the hands of the White Fang,” he said. Weiss’s eyes shot wide. “Wait you’re that guy? Do you realize how much damage you’ve done to my family company?” she demanded to know. “And that is why the governments of Remnant banned me from the stock market, because I was a threat to economic stability. Of course by then I had already made ten million lien,” Lonan retorted. “So then why do you work as a huntsman if you’re rich?” Weiss asked. “Because I’d die of boredom. Gambling and killing grim are the only things I enjoy in this world. Well there is that _other thing_ ,” Lonan began to say. Matt reached down from the horse and lightly smacked the back of his head. “Sorry, lay off that topic. Anyway since I’m banned from every gambling establishment in Remnant, killing grim is all I got.”

                Ruby dashed over to Lonan to take a better look at his briefcase. He looked down to the girl examining his weapon, “looking for something?” “I just like weapons and I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said. “Well Business with Pleasure isn’t like most weapons,” he said. He converted it into a sniper rifle and handed it to Ruby to look at. She held it as if she was about to take a shot. “What’s the caliber?” she asked. “Well I don’t use it for propulsion like you do and with my luck pretty much any shot I take hits something vital, so I don’t really need anything as big as you use,” he said taking back the rifle and converting it to its sub machinegun form for her. “This is for closer range and runs off a secondary clip and action,” he explained. As he said this, Ruby accidently ran her hand over a switch and the short sword popped out as a bayonet startling her and coming within half an inch of stabbing Lonan. “Woah! Watch it” he said as he took the weapon from her, converting it back to a case. “So what about those knives you kept stabbing into the nevermores? They seemed to get slower with each one you stabbed in,” she asked. “Each blade has dust in it that sap energy out of them until they can’t move. I also carry a bladeless variant to use on people that sucks aura. Basically they are just meant to slow my opponent down to the point that I can drop them in one blow,” He explained.

                “Speaking of blows, what was with the blowing up the nevermore from the inside thing,” Yang asked Scotch. “My semblance allows me to become intangible for short periods of time,” he explained. “I seem to recall you getting busted sneaking into a lot of places you didn’t belong,” Matt said jokingly. “Says the guy that uses his semblance to sneak into places to play pranks and throw parties,” Scotch said. “At least I never got caught trying to steal General Ironwood’s good scotch when he visited Ozpin,” Matt retorted. “Was anyone in your generation normal?” Weiss asked sarcastically. “Is anyone in your generation normal?” Matt asked right back. “Something you need to accept about huntsman, huntresses, and beacon. There is no such thing as normal,” Lonan said.

                As the shattered moon began to rise into the sky, the party reached the abandoned mine. They made camp in one of the abandon buildings and started a fire. As “luck” would have it, a large wild boar passed by. Scotch shot it and they had dinner. As Scotch skinned the pig and built a makeshift rotisserie to roast it on, while Lonan saw to Ringo and Matt’s wounds.  Ringo only had some scratches and a conk on the head, but Matt was worse off. After unbuckling and taking off the harness for his free talons and his shredded shirt they could see he had some deep gashes running diagonally across his back. However, that wasn’t the worst of it. As the girls looked over his upper body, they could see various scares and old wounds. “Dang. Matt what’s with all the scares?” Yang asked in a concerned tone. “Hazards of the occupation, Owe!” he said as he flinched from Lonan cleaning the wounds. “Ringo, I need some herbs. The usual compliment should do,” Lonan said as he cleaned. She dropped a few seeds, grew them into small herb plants, and gave them to Lonan. He popped open his briefcase and took out a small crushing bowl and grinder. He ground up the plants into a paste and applied it to the wounds. “Ow!” Matt cried out. “Wimp,” Lonan jabbed. “Hey I don’t usually have to have wounds treated,” Matt said. “Then what about all these?” Blake asked gesturing to his scares. “Well those are mostly from my first days on the job,” Matt said. He started pointing at various scares telling them its origin, “let’s see, chewed on by an Ursa, slashed by nevermore feathers, stung by a death stalker, bitten by a king taijitu, slashed by a beowolf. Shall I go on?” “Done,” Lonan said and he rapped some bandages around Matt’s torso and shoulder. “Don’t suppose you can grow me some novocaine could you?” He asked Ringo jokingly. “It will do for now, but you need a reel doctor when you get back,” Lonan informed him.

                As Lonan finished patching up Matt, Scotch was just putting the whole boar up on a spit. He dusted off his hands as he said, “Ok, that should take about half an hour. So Blackjack or holdem?” he asked Lonan. “Make it holdem and I’m in,” Matt said. “Me two,” added Ringo. The four at down and Lonan produced a deck of cards. Each of them gathered a pile of pebbles to use a chips and Lonan dealt the cards. “You actually play cards with Lonan when he has his kind of luck?” Yang asked. “I only use it when there is something of worth at stake. Besides you probably didn’t notice, but when my semblance is active my right eye turns solid black so you could tell if I’m cheating,” Lonan explained as he finished dealing. He folded his sunglasses putting them in his vest pocket and looked at his cards. “Care to join? It’s rare that I get to play with anyone new,” Lonan said. The four girls joined and the eight of them played cards until they could smell the wild pig.

                As the pig cooked Weiss was petting Whiskey. “Reminds me when I was little and my sister and I would go horseback riding. So you two only have one horse?’ she asked. “No I have my own horse Roulette but she’s with the vet,” Lonan said.

                Scotch inhaled deeply. “Smells like the oinker is done,” He said as he got up and went over to the pig. He converted his pistol to a knife. In the flickering fire, Ruby could make out the words Bandito Bro 1 on the side and assumed the pistols were named the Bandito Bros. He used the large knife and started to chop off chunks of meet. He handed chunks to Matt and he tore into it like an animal. Ringo declined opting to eat fruit she grew. Lonan took it instead and tore into it like Matt. The girls looked at them funny. They noticed and Matt said, “What? When you in the wild you shouldn’t expect five star table manners.” “So Matt, what are you guys doing out here anyway?” Scotch asked. “Me and Ringo are observing these girls on a test mission,” he answered. “They seem a little young for their first mission. They can’t be second years,” Lonan commented. “Well they’re a special case. Ozpin pick them himself. “So what’s the mission?” Lonan asked. “We have to find some artifact in some temple,” Ruby said. “Yeah well with me and Ringo in this condition we may have to scrub it,” Matt sadly said. “None sense we’ll help you,” Scotch said. “Don’t you guys have a job you’re on? What is it anyway?” Ringo asked Scotch. “A shipment of artifacts for a museum exhibit was attacked by grim nevermores and they made off with a few rather large precious stones. We were hired to track down the nevermores, kill them, and retrieve the gems. The same nevermores that happened to be attacking you,” Scotch explained. “Then don’t you have to get them back to the owner?” Ringo asked. “Eh, they’ve been waiting for two months, they can wait a few more days,” Scotch said. “Two months? You’ve been tracking that same group of nevermores for two months?” Blake asked in disbelief. “Our record is four months,” Lonan said. “The temple is about another half day’s walk from here. We can get there, find the artifact, and then there should be a clearing that we can land a bullhead in a few hours from there,” Lonan said. They agreed to their help. They consume the boar and the girls listen in fascination to the stories their heard as their seniors reminisced.

                Ruby was awoken by when her sister stirred in her sleep. Apparently she had fallen asleep on Yang, using her stomach as a pillow. She looked around, hazy on the previous night. Weiss and Blake were still sleeping on their mats and Yang had rolled onto her side towards the warm remains of what used to be their fire. Lonan and Scotch had fallen asleep in an odd manner. They were sitting up with their backs against each other so they were sitting up facing opposite directions and they had their wide brim hats tilted down to block the light. Lonan had his briefcase at his side and Scotch had his repeater Pop Lock sitting in his lap. Matt and Ringo were sitting up side by side against a wall. Ringo had fallen asleep on his shoulder wrapped in his jacket and he had rested his head on top of hers as he snored lightly.

                Quietly, Ruby added some wood to the fire pit and poked the ashes with a stick, trying to ignite the new wood. She froze when she heard the sound of a match. “Use this,” she heard in a low tone. She turned her head to see Scotch, who hadn’t moved his head or moved from Lonan’s back. He had crossed his leg so his boot heel was exposed and was holding out a match he had struck on it. “Thanks,” she whispered as she took the match and lit the tinder under the new wood and the flames began to grow. Scotch raise his hat and produced a pocket watch to check the time. He nudged Lonan with his should. “Lonan wake up.” The gambler shook his head as he woke mumbling, “Ugh, royal flush.” Get it together high roller. Its morning,” Scotch said as he got up, letting Lonan fall on his back. Lonan sat up and rubbed his eyes. Matt stirred at the sound of Lonan flopping back. He lifted his head to look around. He saw Ringo on his shoulder and smiled. He reach over to his pack and pulled it over. He opened a pocket and took out a walnut. He cracked it in his hand and one of Ringo’s ears shot up. He crack it some more and she shot up. “Morning,” he said as she took the nut. “I see you two love birds are still very much an item,” Lonan sneered. Matt snapped his fingers and a tiny bolt of electricity and stung Lonan.

                The other girls woke up and they broke down camp. Matt threw his jacket on over his bandages but opted not to put his shirt and free talon harness back on. They eight of them began their trek into the woods and in a few hours, they reached the temple. It was a tall structure built into the side of the mountain with high arches and ornate pillars. They entered the main hall and saw what they were looking for on the alter at the far end of the room. Ruby dashed over in a cloud of pedals, grabbed the artifact, and dashed back. “We’ll that was easy,” she said holding it up. “DON’T!” yelled Matt, Ringo, Scotch, and Lonan yelled. Suddenly the whole place shook. “Never say those words!” Matt yelled as they ran out of the temple. As they got outside, they saw a swarm of grim on the all over the side of the building. The girls were awestruck. “Girls make sure you burn this lesson into you minds. NEVER say those words when on a mission. Even with Lonan’s luck, those words are guaranteed to cause trouble,” Matt said.

                “Give em a barrage!” Matt yelled. He flipped his sub machineguns on his hips in their holsters to point up. He grabbed Storm Reaper which was hanging off Whisky’s saddle and aimed it at the grim and magnetized the Free Talons so they floated up around him in their gun mode. He started firing randomly. Lonan converted Business with Pleasure into the sub machinegun form. He threw out all of his playing cards with one hand while he fired his gun with the other. Scotch fired explosive dust rounds from his Bandito Bros while Ringo fired her boomerang in sniper rifle form. Weiss drew several glyphs that fired out ice projectiles while Yang, Blake, and Ruby fired randomly at the hoard. The grim fell from the mountain side like insects but more kept coming. “Scotch, get the Whisky Duster!” Matt yelled. Scotch used up the last of his rounds as he made his way over to Whisky. He holstered his revolvers and leaned over the side of Whisky. He grabbed a pair of handles on the saddle bag and pulled back. A long tube swung out from along the horse’s side and combined with the saddle bags to become a large Gatling machine gun. He pulled back on the primer handle and started firing a barrage as empty shells flew out over the horse’s back side. After killing about a hundred grim and going through enough ammo to take out the whole Atlas army, the remaining monsters retreated. They all lowered their weapons, breathing hard from the stress they had just been through. “Let’s go home,” Matt said in between heavy breaths.

                He called for a bullhead and they made their way to the clearing. They boarded the transport and headed back to Beacon. Needless to say, the ride was far less comfortable with two extra men and a horse. When they finally landed, Ozpin, Goodwitch, Razor, and Zwei were waiting for them. They got off and Ozpin was surprised to see a horse exit the craft let alone Scotch and Lonan. “Mr. Marshal, Mr. Straight, this is a surprise. “Ozpin always a pleasure,” Lonan greeted and Scotch tipped his hat. They stepped aside as Matt and Ringo stepped off the transport. Needless to say the bandages on the huntsman prodigy concerned Ozpin and Goodwitch. “What happened to you?!” Goodwitch demanded to know with an air of concern. “I don’t want to talk about it,” Matt said sternly with a frown. Razor stepped up with his arms crossed followed by Zwei. “Dang, I haven’t seen you beat up like this since,” Razor began to say with a smile displaying his fangs. “Say it and I swear you will have to remodel the Moon’s Den again,” Matt threatened. Zwei ran past Razor and everyone else and jumped up into Ruby’s arms. Ozpin Looked past Matt to see that at least the girls are ok. “So how did the class go?” Matt asked Razor. “Well let’s just say Cardin and his goons will be flinching every time a faunas walks in,” he joked. “Perfect,” Matt said. “Well I think we could all use a shower,” Weiss suggested. “And a meal we didn’t have to kill,” Yang added. “And a soft bed,” Blake finished. “Hey Matt, is Razor going to have to cover you class while you’re healing?” Ruby asked. “What are you talking about? I’ll be in calls on Monday. Now if you would excuse me I am going to go find a doctor,” Matt said as he left accompanied by Ringo. “That guy just won’t let up will he?” Scotch joked. “Doubtful,” Ozpin said in an amused tone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on Scotch Marshal and Lonan Straight go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-SBLM-654371737


	6. Day of Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby hasn't been feeling herself lately. She mopes about and barely talks. Worried about their leader the remaining members of team RWBY seek help. Can they bring their leader out of her slump?

                It had been a few weeks since team RWBY had returned from their mission with Matt and Ringo. By now Matt’s wounds had healed and he was teaching his class again, regularly showing up his students. However, Ruby had not been herself over the past few days. She attended her classes, did her schoolwork, and went about her day, but she just wasn’t the same. She kept her hood up all the time and was not her chipper self. Plus she had begun to eat far more cookies than normal. Every time one of her team mates tried to talk to her she just shrugged them off. Not even Yang could get anything out of her.

                Yang, Weiss, and Blake were walking across the courtyard. “What are we going to do about Ruby?” Yang asked. “I know. All she does is take apart and reassemble Crescent Rose all day,” Blake said. “Not to mention the unnatural amount of cookies she’s been eating, and I mean unnatural for her,” Weiss added. “Well maybe we need to find outside help,” Blake suggested. “Both Jaune and Pyrrha tried talking to her. Nora tried a pep up workout and Ren tried one of his ghastly concoctions,” Weiss said contradicting her. “I meant older help. This kind of thing is what Ringo is for,” Blake said.

                The three girls went and knocked on Ringo’s door. “Just a minute!” they heard Ringo yell from inside. They heard the sounds of sticks cracking and leaves rustling and then the door opened. Ringo stood in the doorway, her hair full of leaves and wood chips and a set of pruning shears in hand. “We aren’t disturbing you are we?” Weiss asked. “Oh no, just doing a little trimming. Come in, come in,” Ringo said, gesturing the girls in. They could see small twigs and freshly cut points on the trees and living furniture throughout Ringo’s room, evidence of her pruning. She snapped her fingers and several chairs grew out of the roots along the ground. She put down her shears and dusted the leaves and wood chips from her hair as she sat down. “So, what brings you to my little forest?” Ringo asked the girls. Yang sighed, “Its Ruby. She just hasn’t been herself lately and we just can’t figure out why.”  “Yeah, I’ve noticed something different about her lately,” Ringo said. “I just don’t get it. All my life I’ve never seen her like this,” Yang said. “Well then something has happened that Ruby has never experienced before in her life,” Ringo suggested. “Maybe when you and Matt got hurt out on that mission?” Weiss suggested. “Well I don’t think I’m a legitimate authority on Ruby. I suggest a second opinion,” Ringo suggested. “Well I doubt we can get in touch with Qrow and ever since dad sent Zwei, we haven’t been able to get in touch with him,” Yang said. “You forget, there is another person we can turn to,” Ringo said. She stood up and gestured the girls to follow her.

                The three girls followed Ringo up the hall to another room. “Whose room is this?” Blake asked. Ringo didn’t bother to knock and walked in followed by the girls. They found themselves standing in what looked like a teacher’s office, which they found odd being located in the dorms. It was a large office with many selves loaded with various knickknacks and chotchkies from across Remnant as well as models of various vehicles and robots. On the walls were movies posters of various science fiction movies, personal pictures that the girls didn’t take a good enough look at to recognize anyone, a mounted role up map of Remnant with various other maps, and a large touch screen board with a map of Remnant with various points marked on it. In the center of room was a large stainless steel desk facing the door, piled high with so many papers that they couldn’t see the other side or if anyone was sitting at it. There was a couch against the wall, a large window behind the desk, a few arm chairs facing the desk with a small table, and oddly enough a large mattress was leaned up against the wall.

                From behind the desk they could hear the sound of snoring. They stepped around the desk to see Matt with his feet up on the desk and leaning back in his seat. His jacket was hanging off the back of the chair but he had the hood down over his eyes. “Of course, the only other person who has known Ruby as long as Dad, Qrow, or me,” Yang said. “Matt!” Yang yelled at the sleeping teacher. He didn’t respond. Ringo tapped him on the head and he woke with a start yelling “I didn’t do it!” as he tried to look around with the hood over his eyes. He flipped the hood off to reveal a set of earbuds in his ears, straightened his glasses, and looked over to see Ringo and the three girls. He took the buds out. As he removed them the girls could hear some very loud music coming from them. “Hello girls. What brings you here?” their combat instructor asked with a smile. “It’s Ruby,” Yang said. Matt tilted his head back in his chair saying, “I should have known. Have a seat.”

                The three members of team RWBY sat in the chairs across from Matt but the wall of paperwork was blocking them. “One second,” Matt said. There was a flash of lighting and suddenly all the paperwork was neatly filled out and organized into filing cabinets or an out-going box. “I can think of about a million Schnee Dust Company pencil pushers who would kill to be able to do paperwork that fast,” Weiss said. Ringo then hopped into Matt’s lap putting her arms around his neck, and knocking the wind out of him. “Ringo I don’t think this is appropriate in front of our students,” Matt said in a deadpan tone but wishing he hadn’t. She pouted, jumped off, and instead sat on the desk saying, “Kill joy.” “Flirt,” he shot back.

                “Anyway,” he said refocusing to his students. He put his elbows on his desk, interlocking his fingers. “I too have noticed Ruby’s drastic change in personality. I was just hoping it was a phase and would correct itself. But if it’s gotten bad enough for you to seek outside help, clearly we need to deal with this,” he said. “We just don’t know what to do. We just can’t figure out what’s wrong,” Yang said. “Well if you can’t figure out something about a girl yourself,” He stood up and walked behind them. “You get it straight from the horse’s mouth.” He took a track runners starting position towards an open outlet. “Or should I say pen.” He bolted into the socket and was gone.

                The girls looked at each other in an awkward silence. Eventually Blake decided to break the silence asking, “Hey Ringo, What’s with the mattress on the wall?” Ringo held up a finger saying, “Wait for it.” There was a spark at the socket and Matt bolted out, flying strait into the mattress. “She point at the slumped over Matt saying, “That’s what it’s for.” They walked over to Matt who was upside down against the mattress with his legs hanging over his head. He held up a small red book with Ruby’s emblem embossed on it saying, “Jackpot… I got to work on those landings.” He flipped himself over and threw the girls the book as he sat back at his desked putting his feet up. The girls looked at the book. “Ruby’s Diary? You’re going to read her diary?” Blake demanded to know. “Of course I’m not going to read it. You are,” Matt said as he pulled a bag of chips out of his desk and started munching. “If I, a grown man read a girl’s diary it’s frowned upon by society. However, if the girl’s sister and female friends who care about her read it, it’s them trying to help her. Always remember, gray areas are your friend,” he said as he munched. “How did you even find it?” Yang asked. “I’ve known you girls all your lives. I know how you think and where you hide things. By the way, I bet your dad is looking for this,” He said holding up a credit card with the name Tiayang Xialong on it. Yang’s face went red as she swiped the card from Matt’s hand. He just chuckled. “Anyway I am going to go get a soda. So start going through that journal and find out what’s wrong. Start with the past few weeks and work back,” He said as he walked through a side door in his office. “Where does that door go?” Weiss asked. “Matt has an apartment attached to his office,” Ringo explained. “Why is his office in the dorms anyway?” Blake asked. “Because he is also a dorm advisor. Which by definition has to be in the dorms,” Ringo said.

                The three girls and Ringo crowded around the diary and started reading. Matt came back with a couple of sodas and left them on the desk. He sat down, put his feet up, earbuds in, and did his best to not hear what the girls were saying as he sipped his soda and flipped through videos on his computer.

                After about twenty minute, Ringo tapped Matt’s foot to get his attention. He took out his earbuds asking, “You got something?” Yang tossed the journal down on the desk and slumped back in her seat saying, “She’s homesick.” Matt raise a brow. “She misses dad, Qrow, and her friends back at Signal.” “Apparently, having Yang and You here helped stave it off and were there dad sent Zwei it helped even more but it still got to be too much,” Blake continued. “What I don’t get is her missing talking to her mother. I thought she had passed years ago,” Weiss said. Matt stood up and looked out the window. “Ruby often went to her mother’s grave to ‘talk to her’ when she was having trouble with something. As I recall, she would spent at least one afternoon a weak standing on that cliff talking to the tombstone.” Matt explained.

                “So what are we going to do?” Blake asked. “We could asked Ozpin to let us go on another mission and pick one close to Patch. Then we could drop by your home one the way back,” Blake suggested. Matt shook his head saying, “Eh, after how your last two missions ended, I don’t think Ozpin will let you out in the field again to soon.” “Besides, if we take her home and bring her back she will probably just slip back into her homesickness,” Ringo added. “What we need to do is make her feel at home here, at Beacon. We need to make her all but forget about home,” Matt said as he scratched his chin. Suddenly he snapped as if he had an idea. He walked over to his rolling maps. He pulled down the map of Remnant and it reeled itself up. “Nope,” he said. He pull down the next one, which was a map of Vale and then rolled it back up. “Nope.” The next three maps were of the three kingdoms, “Nope, nope, nope.” The next one looked like a battle plan. “What is that?” Blake asked. He turned to explain “My strategy to defend Vale should is suffer a full scale Grimm invasion.” “You’re actually planning for that?” Weiss asked.  “I prepare for everything,” he said facing them as he pulled down the next map. The girls all went wide eyed. Matt turned to see the major mistake he made. It was a blown up image of him drawing a mustache on Goodwitch’s face while she was sleeping. He quickly rolled it back up. “You didn’t see that,” he said.

                The last one was a mass yearly calendar marked with both business and personal dates. “Here we go,” he said as he started going through the calendar. “Let’s see today is March 5, Tuesday. Ah, perfect,” He said as he tapped the date of Friday March 16. “What is it?” Weiss asked. “We are going to go big so Ruby doesn’t go home. Ringo round up the troops, MRLN, RAZR, SBLM. Scotch and Lonan should still be and town and…” he said and then dashed over to the big screen with the map points on it. “Yang, is Ruby still in to the singer that does _This Will Be the Day, Time to Say Goodbye,_ and _Caffeine_?” he asked. “Yeah,” she said not understanding why he asked. Matt tapped on one of the points on the screen and it expanded. He read over it. “Perfect, Ringo call her too and tell her we need to call in a favor. I’m going to need complete list of everything in the tunnels. This is going to be big,” he said rubbing his hands together with a devious smile. “What are you talking about?” Weiss demanded to know. Matt pointed back at the calendar. The girls looked at the date of the next Friday. “Oh dust. We’ve been so busy, I completely forgot Ruby’s birthday is next week,” she said. “Exactly. Spread the word girls. We’re throwing Ruby the biggest birthday bash in the history of Beacon. We are going to make the party in Ozpin’s office look like a small get together. Tell everyone but tell them to keep it a secret from Ruby. We are going to make it such a surprise it will knock her hood off. Oh and tell Cardin and his goons that if they say anything, they will spend the rest of the semester scrubbing bullheads in detention,” he said. “Where do we throw it? When do we throw it? How do we keep her from finding out?” Weiss asked unconvinced they could pull it off. “In the combat hall, Friday evening, and leave that to me,” He said. “Shouldn’t we ask Ozpin?” Blake asked. “It’s easier to seek forgiveness than ask for permission. Now everyone get to work, I need to call a few contacts for something. Go, go, go!” he said herding them out.

                Over the next few days, the girls, Ringo and Matt began to plan. They all gave Ruby her space who didn’t even notice anymore and spread the word. Teams JNPR and CFVY were of course up for it, as were Sun and Neptune. After the usual threats from Matt Cardin and his goons were uncharacteristically quiet. Of everyone, Matt was the one working the hardest. By the end of the week he had talked to just about every contact he had and called in half the favors people owed him, all for his favorite honorary sister. Of course if he said that out loud, Yang would try to kill him, _try_.

                Eventually Friday rolled around and all the students collected in the combat class arena including Ruby, her hood up eyes down. As usual Matt made a grand entrance, bolting into the room and skidding to a halt of the class. “Good morning class. Today we are going to be doing something a little different. We are going to be having a scavenger hunt of sorts across Vale. If you open your scrolls you will see a file has been sent to them containing instructions and a list of items. Each student has a unique list and you are not to share what is in the file with anyone else. Do not even comment on it. You will have until sun down to collect as many things on your list as possible,” Matt explained. Everyone took out their scrolls and read their files. Everyone But Ruby raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Now then if you are all finished,” Matt began as he pulled out one of his Seraph Duo sub machine guns. He pointed it straight up and as he fired a shot he yelled, “Go!” In the blink of an eye, Ruby had dashed out of the room and down the hall looking for her first item, leaving behind a cloud of rose petals.

                Matt glanced to the wall and said, “Alright Ash keep an eye on her.” Ash Kage stepped away from the wall shedding her camouflage. “Got it,” she said as she dashed after Ruby. “You going to explain this now?” Coco asked holding up her scroll. She had the file open and all it said was, “Let Ruby leave. This is a wild goose chase.” Matt stomped on the ground a few times and yelled down at it, “Alright Ringo, bring it up!” The ground shook a little as a large hole opened up and large sentient vines started lifting pallets of supplies out. The remaining members of teams MRLN, RAZR, and Becky Oobleck came up with them. “What’s all this?” Sun asked. “As I’m sure you all know by now, Ruby has not been herself. Well today we are going to surprise her back into herself or die trying. Today is Ruby’s birthday and we are going to throw the surprise party of her life. I’ve sent new files to all of your scrolls with your assignments for setting up,” Matt explained. “What about Ruby?” Velvet asked. “I sent her on a wild goose chase. Trust me with the items on that list, she’ll be gone all day,” Matt said with a devious smile. He turned to Becky, “Becky, how much time would you calculate we have?” Becky activated her semblance and her mind went into overdrive. The world slowed around her as she began to calculate all the factors and came to a conclusion. “Factoring in Ruby’s speed semblance, resourcefulness, determination, and the ridiculous nature of the items on the list, I’d say we have approximately five hours,” said the semi-mad scientist. “You heard the woman, we got five hours to turn this place into Ruby-palooza. So let’s get to it,” He yelled to everyone.

                The students looked at their assignments and scrambled to set up. “Hey Matt can you explain to me how this is supposed to fix Ruby?” Jaune asked as they were setting up. “Well Mr. Arc after extensive research, study of Ruby’s recent behavior, and reading through a certain tome she would have preferred us not to, we have surmised that the young Rose is homesick. We intend to make this place feel so much like home that she’ll snap out of it,” Matt explained. “How?” Jaune asked. “Home is where you’re surrounded by people who care about you. You’ll notice the distinct lack of Cardin and his goons. Everyone here volunteered to be here because they care about Ruby,” Matt explained.

                Within an hour, they had already had the tables set up and the decorative planters out. Ringo went from planter to planter dropping seeds in the planters and with the wave of a hand they grew into large scythe and Ruby shaped rose topiaries. Lulu was setting up a large throne that Ringo had grown and was covered in roses. The Idea was to make Ruby feel like the most important girl in the world and that wouldn’t be complete without a throne. Above her Becky was using her mecha suit to hold up a huge arch made out of two giant replicas of Crescent Rose while Narco was bolting it together. Razor and Zaffre lugged in a soda bar which Razor would man that evening.  Coco was helping Rouge hang large red tapestries from the ceiling. Needless to say Coco was in a state of bliss, being able to work with her fashion idol.

                Matt was working with the remaining members of team CFVY, Sun, and Neptune assembling a stage with lots of lights and speakers. “Matt what exactly is this stage for? Neptune asked puzzled. Suddenly, they heard the sound of a loud strum of an electric guitar. “Hello Beacon!” they heard a familiar female voice yell. Matt smiled as he and the other members of his graduating class yelled back, “Hello Misty!” Everyone looked to the door to see a rocker chick walk in followed by a rock band.

                They looked her over. She had long blonde hair with a streak of blue down the side framing her face. She had heavy eyeliner, blue eyeshadow, and light blue lipstick. She wore a blue mid-drift tank top with a high cropped black leather jacket, and blue skinny jeans held up by a black leather belt covered in silver studs and a large emblem belt buckle of a star with a speaker in the center. She wore calf high leather boots and had an electric guitar hanging off her shoulder with a strap that looked like a bandoleer. Suddenly it hit the students just who she was. It was Misty Keys the rock star. Matt stood up and walked over to her. “Matt you crazy sparkplug it’s good to see you again!” she said joyfully as she gave him a friendly hug.

                “Matt is that who I think it is?” Yang asked. “Yes my dear students, meet Misty Keys,” Matt said. “As in _the_ Misty Keys, the rock star?” Weiss asked in awe. “No Misty Keys the janitor,” he answered sarcastically. “You got to be kidding me. First you know Rouge Garnett the famous fashion designer, now you tell us you know a famous rock star,” Weiss said in disbelief. “Another peer from you day’s at Beacon I presume?” Blake asked. “Of course,” he answered. “So what is she doing here?” Pyrrha asked. “She is Ruby’s favorite artist,” Matt said.

                “Well as usual, Misty has stolen the spot light,” they heard from behind them. Two young men stood in the door holding large colorfully wrapped boxes. Scotch and Lonan craned their heads out around the sides of the presents. “Aw good you guys made it,” Matt said walking to his two friends and took some of the presents to ease their loads. “Well playing pony express can be a nice change from killing grim all day,” Scotch said. “So you found them both ok?” Matt asked. “It was pretty easy. Just follow the sound of the loudest laughing for the first and then the loudest drunken rant for the other,” Lonan joked. “Well come in set up and see where you can help. We should have about three hours until Ruby should be back,” Matt said.

                Everyone continued to scurry about setting up. Food made by Narco was brought in, while some of the students dashed back to their rooms to bring their presents for Ruby. Yang was sitting with Zwei inflating red balloons. Oddly enough, she was holding the balloons so the dog could blow them up. “Ok everyone sound off, Bar,” Matt called out. “Ready!” yelled Razor. “Decorations.” “Up,” called Rouge and Ringo. “Food.” “Delicious,” Narco called kissing his fingertips. “Stage,” Matt said looking to the stage. The stage creaked and fell apart. He slapped his forehead cursing, “For the love of the dust.”

                “What is going on here?” Came a stern female voice from the door. Matt turned to see professors Ozpin, Goodwitch, Oobleck, and Port. “Ozpin, what are you doing here?” he asked in a guilty tone. “Wondering where half the student body has been,” said the head master. “What are you all doing here?” Goodwitch demanded to know. “Well Ruby hasn’t been herself lately and today is her birthday so we thought,” Matt explained. “You thought a big party would snap her out of it,” Ozpin said finishing Matt’s sentence. “And you didn’t get permission because?” Goodwitch asked. “It’s easier to seek forgiveness than ask permission,” Ozpin answered for him. Matt snapped pointing at Ozpin, signifying he had hit the nail on the head. “It sounds like a grand idea. How may we help?” Ozpin asked. Glynda looked to the head master in disbelief saying, “But Ozpin they did get permission, not to mention he’s pulled half of these students out of other classes…” Ozpin held up a hand to stop her and said, “It is a teacher’s duty to ensure the health and happiness of their students. Let’s just file this as a ‘team building exercise’.” He turn back to Matt and asked again, “How can we help?” Matt surveyed the room. “Well we need the stage put together. Apparently huntsmen and huntresses do not make good builders,” Matt said sarcastically. “Of course, Glynda if you please?” Ozpin asked the crop toting teacher. She huffed and waved her crop at the pile of stage parts. They glowed purple and began to assemble themselves into a stage.

                Just then Matt got a call on his scroll. He answered. “Hello?” Out in town Ash was crouched on the corner of a rooftop watching Ruby down on the side walk with a backpack full of items for the scavenger hunt. “It’s Ash. She’s almost done,” she said to Matt on the other end of the line. Matt looked at his watch. “Becky is losing her touch. How long do you think we have?” he asked. “She should only have one thing left to get, so I’d say half an hour,” she answered. “Alright, get back here. We should be just about done,” he said as he hung up. He turned back to everyone, “Ok we got about half an hour, is everything ready?” He went through the check list and confirmed they were done. Ash arrived with Ruby less than two minutes behind her. They quickly killed the lights and they all hid.

                Ruby quietly walked into the darkened room. “Hello?” she called out. “Is anybody here?” As soon as she reached the center of the room, a spotlight directly above her turned on, pointing at her. Her focus darted around trying to tell what was going on. “Happy Birthday Ruby!” she heard in various voices from all sides. Matt bolted up behind her. He took the bag of items, lowered her hood, and placed a tiara of roses on her head. The rest of the lights went on and rose petals rained from the ceiling. For the first time in days Ruby actually smiled. “You did this all for me?” she asked Matt. “Not just me. All of us,” he said gesturing to the hoard of friends that surrounded them and then whisked her to her throne. She looked over all her friends and her sister Yang, Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Coco, Velvet, Fox, Yatsuhashi, Sun, Neptune, various other students and her teachers. “I thought you had all forgotten,” Ruby said in disbelief. “Never, we know that you’ve been home sick and figured we do our best to make this feel like home,” Matt said comforting her. “How did you know I…” she began to ask. “You have been quite withdrawn lately and it doesn’t take a detective,” Matt answered before she could finish her question. “You read my diary didn’t you?” she asked in a tone of disappointment. “I just found it. Yang and the others read it,” he said in his defense while simultaneously throwing his conspirators under the proverbial bus.

                “You’re just always full of surprises aren’t you Matt?” She joked. “And there are more to come,” he said pointing towards the stage. The lights over it went on and Ruby heard the familiar opening guitar rift of her favorite song _This Will Be the Day_ and people cheering. When she saw the actual Misty Keys on the stage, she squealed like a school girl and dashed to the front of the group of students leaving a cloud of roses. Misty played her set of her greatest hits up beat hits: _This Will Be the Day, I Burn, From Shadows, Gold, I May Fall, Wings, Time to Say Goodbye, Die, Shine, Caffeine_ , and finished up with _Red Like Roses_ finding it appropriate considering the birthday girls name and color. After the concert ended, everyone took to doing their own thing. Team JNPR dance, the teachers talked, Sun and Neptune drank Razor’s drinks like they were dying of thirst. Everyone tore through the buffet. Narco had to refill it five times.  

Eventually it was time for the ceremonial shredding of paper, better known as opening presents. Many of the presents were typical girl things, clothes and jewelry while some were far more “Ruby”. Becky had made her special rounds for Crescent Rose. As a fellow sniper, Lonan got her a new high caliber barrel, Rouge had made her a new battle skirt, and Misty had a signed guitar for her biggest fan. Then came the gifts from her team mates. Blake’s gift was more of a gag gift, a book titled, “How to Train Your Dog to Like Cats”. Weiss gave her a case of dust for making sniper rounds and jokingly handed her a pamphlet on dust safety. Yang gave her sister big hug and a book. A gag book obviously “Yang Xia Long’s 101 Bad Puns”. “Is that everything?” Ruby asked wondering if they were done. “Not quite,” Matt said carrying in a few more boxes.

                One of them was long in grey wrapping paper, one was rather small, and one was the size and shape of a person wrapped in yellow paper. “It took every contact I have, but I finally tracked down your crazy old man and drunken uncle Qrow,” He said. Rudy paced around the large yellow package. “Don’t tell me dad mailed himself,” she said. “Doubtful, if he did that, he would have tried to use a much smaller package. After I tracked down their locations, I sent Scotch and Lonan to find them. They both wanted to be here but business kept them away. However, they did sent these,” Matt said gesturing to the presents. He handed her the grey present first saying, “This one is from the dusty old crow.” She opened the box to find a set of curved blades, just like the ones on her scythe. She gave the blades a thorough examinations. She check for warping, the angles, and gave a lite lick to determine the alloy when she went wide eyed. “Oh my dust how did he get these?” she asked rhetorically. “I don’t get it. They’re just blades,” Weiss said. “Not just any blades. These are made of Dust fused alloy that is almost impossible to make. There’s only supposed to be a hand full of old fashion forgers that can make these. They say you can chop through a million steel girders and still not have to sharpen them,” Ruby squealed with glee. She was just about to dash of to install them when Matt grabbed her shoulder saying, “You’re not done yet.”  He pulled over the human shaped package. “This is from your dad,” he said and stepped away to get a drink while she opened it. Ruby shredded through the paper to find a smaller box with a note. She opened the note and Yang came in over her shoulder to read it with her.

                It read, “Dear Ruby, I wish I could have given this to you myself as much as I wish your mother could have given this to you. She had planned to give this to you herself when you turned sixteen, but unfortunately that cannot happen rest her soul. I only hope that this may show you just how proud of you we are, how much we want you to reach you dreams, and certain we are that you will. Your always proud old man, Tiayang Xia Long. P.S. pet Zwei and hug your sister for me.”

                Ruby was intrigued. She opened the box to find some sort of white garment. She slowly lifted it out and her jaw dropped when she realized what it was. Yang came up behind her wide eyed. “Ruby, is this what I think it is?” Yang slowly asked in disbelief.  “Uh huh,” Ruby stuttered out. “Ruby what is it?” Weiss asked. Matt walked back up sipping his drink. When he saw the white garment Ruby was holding up he did a spit take. “Whoa, he sent that?!” he exclaimed. “Would someone tell me what it is?” Weiss demanded. “If I recognize it correctly, that is _her_ cloak isn’t it?” Ozpin inquired. Matt took the garment from Ruby’s hands, handling it carefully. He stepped behind her and took off her tiara, hood, and cape, handing them to Yang. He wrapped Ruby in what everyone could now see was a new cloak and clipped it closed as he put up the hood. She shivered and sighed in the comfort of being wrapped in the new cloak. “I don’t get it. It’s just a new cloak,” Weiss said. “Not just any cloak. This Cloak used to be worn by her mother Summer Rose,” Matt explained.

                Ruby began to get teary eyed. “Hold the water works Rosebud. There is still one more present,” Matt said as he handed her a flat rectangular present. She opened it and upon seeing the contents, she could do nothing but smile. She was holding a framed picture of all her old friends and teachers from Signal academy short of her dad and Qrow who were gone. They were standing together outside of the school with a big sign that read, “We believe in you Ruby”. Ruby burst into tears. “Oh no we broke her,” Lulu said. “No, these are tears of happiness. We’ve just fixed her,” Matt said. It was true, even though tears fell from Ruby’s eyes she smiled.

                Ruby just kept starring at the picture until a flickering light drew her attention. She looked up to see her birthday cake being rolled in. It was a six foot tall six tier cake with chocolate chip cookies, caramelized strawberries, red chocolate roses, an edible figurine of Ruby with Crescent Rose on top, and sixteen red candles systematically place around the various tiers. She dashed over to it in with a cloud of rose pedals and admired the cake, debating in her minded whether she should have it preserved for posterity or swallow it whole right then and there. “She’s a beauty isn’t she?” Matt said coming up behind her. “Well,” he said. “Well what?” she said back. “Well are you going to blow out the candles or are we just going to throw you in it? He said jokingly. “To tell the truth, the second option sounds kind of fun,” She said in amusement. “Well maybe we’ll plan for that next year along with the roasting,” he joked back. “However, I think everyone else wants a chance to eat it.” “Next time then,” she said as she took a deep breath, preparing to blow.

                She dashed around the cake in a cloud of rose pedals, trying to blow out all the candles at once. However, when she came to a stop they were all still burning. She tried again but it didn’t work. A few people began to snicker. She tried once more and once more, they didn’t go out. She was getting frustrated. Matt came up and took one of the candle off jokingly asking, “Ruby why are you wasting your time trying to blow out these trick candles?” with a cocky smile on his face as he extinguished it in a glass of water. Ruby was dumbstruck, then a little angry, but then amused to the point of laughter. Matt produce a knife, cut into the cake, and removed the first slice from the cake which was now revealed to be red velvet with caramelized strawberries baked in. He handed the first large piece to Ruby, being sure it included some caramelized strawberries, a chocolate rose, and the edible figure of her for good measure. She practically inhaled it and slummed back in her throne in a state of euphoria. “Looks like she didn’t like it,” Matt said sarcastically.

                After the cake they proceeded to party the night away. By three in the morning everyone had fallen asleep. Lonan, Scotch, Sun and Neptune were slumped against the bar, drinks still in hand while Razor was lying passed out across the bar top. Blake was curled up on a table while Weiss had fallen asleep in the huge pile of shredded wrapping paper holding Zwei. Ruby and Yang had fallen asleep with Yang holding her sister, Ruby still wrapped in her mother’s cloak. The members of team JNPR had fallen asleep piled on top of each other while team CFVY was passed out against some of the planters. Becky, Misty, and her band were asleep scattered about the stage. Narco had fallen asleep against the wall with Lulu resting her head on his shoulder and Ringo had fallen asleep hugging her tail as a pillow.

                Port, Oobleck, and Goodwitch had all turned in for the night leaving only Ozpin and Matt the last men standing. Ozpin stood looking over his horde of sleeping students both new and old with an amused grin. He looked over to see Matt finishing up drawing mustaches on everyone’s faces with a large black permanent marker. He stood up from his last victim snickering. He walked over and joined Ozpin looking over the party. “How exactly do you expect to get away with that, if you’re the only one without inked facial hair?” Ozpin asked him, not turning towards his former student now colleague. “Good point,” Matt said. He took out a washable marker and drew a stash on himself. “Better?” he asked Ozpin. “Better than Port’s,” Ozpin joked. They both turned back to the party. Matt gave a long yawn. “Well, I believe this party can be ruled a success,” Ozpin said. “Agreed,” Matt said. The two parted. Ozpin left to return home and Matt stumbled down to Ringo, collapsed next to Ringo, and pulled her in close as he slightly began to snore, letting sleep take hold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on Misty Keys go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-SBLM-654371737


	7. Return of Rivals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fed up with team MRLN's antics Professor Goodwitch enlists some of their old rivals to put them in their place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note towards the end this story makes references to volume 3 and may be considered spoilers. Read at your own pearl.

                The members of team RWBY were walking across the courtyard. “So what do you think this mystery lecture is about?” Weiss asked. “Maybe Matt’s just trying punk us again,” Blake suggested. “Eh, did somebody say my name?” they heard a groggy voice say above them. The girls looked up into the tree above them to see Matt, Ringo, Lulu, and Narco waking up from napping in the branches. “What are you guys doing in a tree?” Blake asked. “It’s our favorite tree. No one would look for a bunch of people in a tree. It’s the perfect place to get away from the world,” Matt said as he shifted in the branches. The four teachers swung down from their perch in the tree. “So why were you talking about me?” Matt asked. “We thought this mystery lecture we’re getting today was going to be another one of your stunts,” Yang said. “If I knew there was a lecture today, I would have planned one,” Matt said. “You mean sludge dumps in the rafters?” Ringo asked. “Or replacing the slide presentation with a gag one?” Lulu added. “More like all of the above,” Narco added with a devious smile. “Well the only reason Ozpin wouldn’t tell us about this is if he really didn’t want this disturbed. I’m intrigued,” Matt said.

                The members of team MRLN joined team RWBY and went to the lecture. They went to the amphitheater where it appeared the whole student body had accumulated. They took some seats in the front row and got comfortable. When the time came for the lecture, Glynda Goodwitch walked up to the stage and took the microphone. “Bring on the snooze fest and the chewing out,” Matt joked. Glynda cleared her throat and spoke, “Good afternoon students. I’m sure that you are all curious to know what this mysterious lecture is all about. One of the biggest theories is that this is a big practical joke by Professor Vert and his gang of trouble making hooligans.” “You forgot hansom and diabolical genius!” Matt yelled out interrupting her. Some of the students stifled their laughter. A vain in Glynda’s forehead bulged a bit, but she just pushed up her glasses, calming herself and continued, “Anyway, today’s lecture is on Beacon Academy discipline.” The crowd of students groaned. “Clearly cleaning bullheads is not enough of a threat to keep in line, so perhaps the fear of this will,” she said cryptically and the lights suddenly went out.

                “he he he he,” they heard a giggle in the darkness. “ha ha ha ha,” they heard again, but it was a different voice. Heh heh heh heh,” came a third voice. “Ha ha ha ha,” came a fourth. Matt’s eyes narrowed in the dark, he recognized those laughs. Suddenly he noticed a thin mist building up at his feet as well as the feet of the other members of team MRLN. However, it wasn’t spread across the room. There was only a small cloud at their feet with a mysterious trail of mist leading away.

                There was a dim spark in the distance and Matt realized what was going on. “MRLN scramble!” Matt yelled. On instinct the four members of team MRLN jump out of their seats as a surge of electricity surged through the cloud of mist almost frying them. “Narco,” Matt said as he drew a glowing glyph. The glow allowed shadows to form in the darkness. “On it boss,” Narco said as he jumped into one of the new shadows. The lights went back on and they heard what sounded like a chain unfurling. The three remaining members of team MRLN dodged out of the way as what looked like barb wire with a claw on the end struck the ground where they were standing. The students looked up to the balcony that ran around the upper level of the amphitheater. They saw the barbwire was attached to the arm of a young woman with sloppy black hair that said “I don’t care how I look,” with and orange headband. She wore an orange tank top with a dark orange jacket, cropped halfway up her torso with the sleeves rolled up to just over the elbow with black cuffs with a strap and button holding them. She also wore dark blue skinny jeans, black combat boots, and a silver choker. Around her forearms she wore a pair of bracers with barbwire like cables wrapped around them, the cable that just missed them coming from one of them.

                Suddenly another woman jumped over the other onto the cable, running down it towards them. She had dark blue hair with light blue streaks in in it, tied back in a short messy ponytail and her bangs partially hiding the left of her light blue eyes. She was about five foot six, wore a tank top with light gunmetal plating on her chest and abs with small shoulder guards. She had a black belt with a short black skirt of gunmetal plates over dark blue skinny jeans and black heeled combat boots and a light blue sash hanging off the side of her belt. On her back she had a small gunmetal backpack with a pair of pistol grip handles with triggers sticking out the top sides, cables connecting the handles, and a pair of tesla coils sticking out of it.

                A cloud of mist trailed behind her as she dashed down the cable and she grabbed the handles on her pack. She drew them revealing them to be a pair of strait edge swords, one silver with a minus symbol on it and the other blue with a plus symbol on it. She held out one of her hands with her index and pinky fingers pointed towards team MRLN and a wave of mist flew towards them and enveloped them. Matt used his semblance to magnetically lock onto the metal Ringo and Lulu had on them and forced them out of the cloud. The woman on the cable pulled the trigger on her forward sword and it surged with electricity that travelled down the mist towards Matt. Matt drew a glyph and absorbed the electricity. He drew another glyph and slammed his fists together, sending out a wave of energy that dispersed the mist.

                She jumps of the cable towards him about to slash him but he bolted out of the way. He rematerialized facing back at her skidding to a halt putting his hand to the ground to stabilize himself. Then another guy with a bladed staff flew down towards him from behind. He had light brown hair, a gold t-shirt under a half zipped green hoodie, black jeans, black boots with gold laces. He wore glasses, a gold watch, and a small flower like pendant. “Storm incoming!” they heard Narco yell through a shadow. As he turned to face his attacker, his sword Storm Reaper flew out of a shadow. He caught it and brought it up to block the attacker and deflected it down into the ground and then spun back around to strike his attacker down but he back flipped out of the way. “Of course,” Matt whispered under his breath in an annoyed tone.

                While this was happening, Ringo and Lulu got ambushed by the fourth attacker. A young man with rusty red hair, a rust red long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up under a brown vest, blue jeans, and a pair of work boots. He had jumped up behind the two girls and attacked them with a pair of rusty looking swords. He swung over and over, but the girls kept dodging, taking the occasional punch or kick when an opportunity opened. The problem was he just seemed to get stronger each time they hit him. Then as their attacker was about to strike, Narco flew out of Lulu’s shadow, jammed the muzzle of his shotgun into the attacker’s chest and fired, sending the guy flying. Narco snapped and Ringo and Lulu’s weapons flew up an out of their shadows. They caught their weapons and chambered their first rounds as Narco pumped his shotgun and a spent shell flew out. Another wire flew at Lulu and a claw on the end grabbed her. The wire pulled back and she was pulled over towards the woman in orange who had jumped down to the stage. Ringo charged at the girl with the blue and silver swords and Narco dropped into the shadow of young man with the rusty swords.

                The big screen behind the stage lit up with health displays like during official fighting match. On the left was Matt, followed by Ringo, Lulu, and then Narco at the bottom. On the right were the four unknown combatants. On top was their team name JABR (Jaberwocky), below that was the young man with the bladed staff, his name was Jared Aurelius. Blow him was the young woman with the blue and silver swords Azure Cornentine. Next was the girl with the barb wire Behira Cinnabar, followed by the man with the rusty swords named Rusty Broderick.

                Matt was in a deadlock with Jared, each one perfectly blocking the other’s attacks. This Jared was good. His reactions were flawless. Even when Matt would bolt around to strike behind him, Jared blocked perfectly. Ringo and Azure were going at t just as flawlessly. Every strike blocked. Ringo converted her boomerang to a long sniper rifle and a scope popped up. She took aim and fired a volley at Azure who did something no one expected. As she dodged to the side of the shots, she held out her swords side by side pulling the triggers. Electricity surge between the blades forming a powerful magnetic field that caught the bullets. She spun on her heels and sung the swords around, throwing the slugs back at Ringo. Quickly Ringo threw down some seeds that instantly grew into a wall of thick vines that blocked the bullets.

                Lulu was getting angry. Behira was swinging around on her cables as Lulu was trying to shoot her down with her machine gun, and had already blown through two ammo belts. She flipped it over and up on to her shoulder and fired a rocket at her. Behira threw a cable back to stop herself and swing back, just missing the rocket. He threw a cable at Lulu. Lulu let the claw catch near the muzzle of the machine gun. Behira began to wind in the cable while Lulu struggled to hold her ground. The Lulu pointed the machine gun at Behira and opened fire as she stopped fighting the pull and instead road it towards her foe. Behira quickly detached the claw from the machine gun but it was too late. Lulu converted her weapon to an axe and slashed, send Behira flying back. Behira just manage to lock a cable into the ground to stop herself and landed on her feet. She wound the cable back in and whipped the other towards Lulu. She jammed the end of her axe into the ground and flipped up so she was balancing on the handle as the cable whipped around and wrapped around the axe getting stuck. Lulu flipped down drawing her hand cannon and charged at Behira firing. As she closed in she converted her pistol to its combat knife for and went to stab the anchored down Behira. But just as she did, Behira whipped her other cable around so it wrapped the two of them together. As the barbs of the cable dug into Lulu sapping her Aura, she twisted the knife digging into Behira’s aura and fired. Simultaneously, their aura’s collapsed and their health bars on the screen were empty.

                Matt and Jared were going at it like their lives depended on it. Matt managed to get a lucky strike in and sent Jared skidding back. Jared converted his staff. It folded over and extended as a pistol grip folded out and the blades folded back into a stock making it a rifle. He fired catching Matt off guard and shot his sword out of his hands. Matt drew a glyph that shot lightning bolts towards the staff wielder as he turned too yelled to Narco, “Narc, I need the seraphs and talons!” Narco was busy with his own fight.  The mechanic deflected a strike from Rusty as he dove into his shadow.  Second later, Matt’s free talon blades flew out of his shadow and he magnetized them bringing them up is a spinning circular formation to block Jared’s next volley of shots before the staff wielder converted back to his bladed staff and charged blade first. As he closed in, Narco threw Matt’s Seraph submachine guns up threw Matt’s shadow. He caught them, converting them to swords and dodged to the side, slashing down on the staff causing it to dig into the ground. He swung around to slash Jared but Jared fire the gun in his staff so it flew out of the ground as he spun around, hitting Matt in the gut like a baseball bat sending him flying back. However, he was flying towards his sword which was stuck in the ground. He stowed his talons in his jacket and converted his guns to their sword forms. He landed against the unsharpened back side of the blade. As it dislodged and popped out of the ground, it converted into its hover board form. He gunned the accelerator.

                As Matt and Jared were going at it, Narco jumped out of a shadow behind Rusty, slashing at him with an active chainsaw. He made contact and the saw ground against Rusty’s aura. However Rusty’s body glowed as he spun around striking with far more strength than he had before. Narco was able to hold up his chainsaw broad ways to block the strike and was sent skidding back. Narco whipped out his chain and swung it at Rusty. It hooked onto one of Rusty’s swords and pulled Rusty towards him. He converted his weapon to a shotgun, jammed it into Rusty’s gut as he stumbled towards him. He fired and Rusty stumbled back. Rusty stabilized himself. He began to focus his aura and concentrated it into his swords and they began to change. The rust faded away as the swords revealed their natural black color and the blades became sharper. He slashed towards Narco and an edge of energy flew at him. Narco was just able to jump into a shadow before it hit him. He jumped out behind him with his shotgun in its wrench form. He locked the large mouth around Rusty’s torso and tightened it so it wouldn’t come off. He held on for dear life and started firing over and over into Rusty’s back. Rusty thrashed around trying to throw Narco off but he held on as he swung around like a rag doll. Then just as his aura broke, Rusty stabbed his swords behind him taking out the rest of Narco’s aura too as they both went down.

                Back with Azure and Ringo, their battle had turned into a storm of blades. Ringo had separated her boomerang into two machetes and the two were locked in a double bladed battle. Eventually, Azure got the upper hand and force Ringo back. Ringo held out her hand and Azure Noticed the vines growing at her feet, restraining her. Apparently, Ringo had dropped some seeds without her noticing while they were fighting. Large red bulbs of fire dust sprouted along the vines and Ringo smiled thinking she had Azure beat. She reconnected her machetes into a boomerang and then to its rifle form. She took aim and fired at one of the dust bulbs. Suddenly, she seized. She hadn’t noticed that Azure had made a thin trail of mist to a denser cloud at Ringo’s feet and had sent a powerful electrical charge along it and into Ringo. But it was too late for Azure. Ringo had already fired and the fire dust ignited. Both their auras depleted and they went down.

                Now only Matt and Jared were left, and neither of them showed any sign of letting up. “This is insane,” Ruby said to the other members of her team. “It appears we have a grudge match going on here,” they heard next to them. The members of team RWBY turned to see professor Ozpin sitting in the seat next to them, one leg crossed over the other as he sipped his coffee. The girls had been far to engulfed in the fight to notice him sit down. Matt and Jared were fighting tooth and nail. Eventually, Matt bolted back to collect himself. The two combatants stood across the stage from each other each breathing heavily. They were both exhausted but Matt was ticked now. He stowed his guns and converted his board back to a sword. He was getting ticked off, it was time to go full scythe. He flipped the conversion switch and it converted into a scythe as he spun it around behind him. “Well if we’re getting serious, I guess I better get serious too,” Jared said as he stabbed his staff into the ground. He stepped away from him and his body started to glow with a golden aura. There was a bright flash and everyone had to cover the eyes except for Matt, who just stared straight at Jared. When the light dulled everyone looked to see Jared had changed into a human dragon hybrid with gold scales, wings, a tail and claws. He snarled deeply, a small golden flame entering and exiting his mouth as he breathed.

                Jared roared. Matt swung his scythe around as he said, “Let the Journey begin.” He took a step forward and suddenly burst from 2 to 100 miles an hour towards Matt, slashing with his new claws. Matt bolted at Jared, slashing with his scythe. Jared caught the blade and threw him over his shoulder. Matt flew over him and drew a glyph, rebounding back at Jared. But before he could strike, Jared flapped his wings and flew up. Matt dug his scythe into the ground behind him as he flew by. He swung around as he launched four of his free talons towards Jared. Jared held up his forearms blocking the blades and they bounced off. As Jared brought his arms down from blocking, Matt struck, sending Jared flying back into a wall. As the dust settled, Jared pulled himself out of a crater in the wall.

                Matt brought his already deployed talons back to him as he let out the others. He brought them up in formation as they converted to their firing mode and they opened fire. However the barrage had little effect as Jared launched himself out of the crater in the wall at Matt. Matt bolted up out of the way and Jared flapped his wings sending him straight towards Matt. He whipped himself around hitting Matt with his tail. Matt was sent flying. His holsters turned on pivots and fired behind him to slow him down. He brought his talons along in a line as he quickly kicked them towards Jared one at a time, using his feet to help accelerate them. The talons opened their blades into grabbing claws, locked onto Jared’s arms and legs, and pinned him to a wall. Matt drew a glyph and charged his scythe with electricity and rebounded off an acceleration glyph back at Jared. Matt struck, but Jared had managed to catch the blade between his hands. Matt and Jared were locked in a stalemate, Matt trying to force the blade into Jared as Jared tried to force him back. Then Matt smiled cockily and he laughed a little. “What’s so funny?” Jared asked in a deep monstrous voice, most likely due to his dragon like form. “Merlin’s storm buddy,” Matt said. Jared’s eyes went wide when he saw what was going on. As they were fighting, Matt had magnetized his team’s weapons, and brought them over. He converted them to their gun forms and pointed them at Jared along with his twisting his guns in their holsters and brought his talons up in formation, every barrel pointed at Jared.

                “Well, Merlin’s Storm haven’t seen that in a while,” Ozpin said. “What’s Merlin’s Storm?” Ruby asked. “Team MRLN’s favorite finishing combo. Usually the other members of the team are holding their weapons but Matt is perfectly capable of performing it on his own,” Ozpin explained. “Checkmate golden boy!” Matt yelled as all the guns fired, pummeling Jared with high powered ammunition kicking up a huge cloud of dust. Matt limped out of the dust cloud using Storm Reaper as a cane breathing heavily and holding his side. He looked up to the score board to see he only had one point of aura left in his health bar. “I’m losing my touched,” he said, then cringed from a little pain.

                The dust cleared and they saw Jared lying on the ground. He groaned, “Every time.” Matt stumbled over to Jared. “Well at least we’re consistent,” Matt joked. They both laughed as Matt took Jared’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “Ha, Jared Aurelius where you been keeping yourself?!” Matt said as he pulled his friend in and they each slapped each other in the back, each cringing after from their own wounds but they didn’t care. “Well this is a touching reunion between friends but can somebody get us loose?” Lulu asked sarcastically. They looked over to see Lulu and Behira mummified back to back in Behira’s cables. “Yeah this is really uncomfortable,” Behira added. “Well at least you’re not tied to Narco. He’s greasier than a pizza,” Lulu joked. “I heard that,” Narco said as he and Rusty were coming to. “Did we miss the climax?” Rusty asked. “Who cares? It always ends the same way anyway,” Narco said. “Was blowing me up really necessary?” Azure aske Ringo as she sat up. She was covered in ash, her hair was blasted out and she coughed out ash. “Only as… ZZZ… as the… ZZZ… Shock,” Ringo stuttered, seizing from the electricity that hadn’t found its way out of her body, her hair standing on end.

                “No!” Glynda yelled as she stomped up to Jared and Matt. “You were supposed to put them in their place, not lose and laugh about it!” she yelled at Jared. “Well what did you expect? Did you even look at our track record against these guys?” Jared asked. “These matches always end like this. The others take themselves out, and then I win by a hair,” Matt Said.

                “Glynda?” they heard behind the angry teacher. They looked over her shoulder to see Ozpin. She turned to face the headmaster, a guilty look on her face. “Are you still trying to put Matt and his team in their place?” he asked her in an emotionless tone. “Well I…” He held up a hand to silence her and then said, “My office.” Goodwitch scurried off and Ozpin followed behind. “So what did she offer you?” Matt asked Jared. “Your job,” he answered. “You do know I have tenure right?” Matt asked. “I know, I just wanted an excuse to attack you in front of your students,” Jared said. “Matt’s eyes went wide, “Oh crud, the students.” He looked out over the crowd of students watching. “Indeed,” Jared said with a smirk. “What the heck is going on?!” Ruby yelled. Matt and Jared looked at each other and then back to the students. Simultaneously they yelled, “Class Dismissed!”

                The students began to file out as Matt and Jared continued talking. “Come on, I’ll buy you a drink as a consolation prize, and then you can buy everyone else’s drinks as my prize,” Matt joked. “Would someone answer the question?” Ruby yelled. Matt looked to her and said, “Over drinks,” as they all limped out.

                It was quiet in the Moon’s Den that evening. It was the first time in days that Razor hadn’t beat up a bunch of thugs and it was finally peaceful.  As usual the rest of team RAZR were hanging around. Zaffre had his feet up in one of the bar stools, Razor was cleaning glasses behind the bar with a turkey bone sticking out of his mouth like a cigar, and Ash and Rouge were playing darts. Rouge suddenly went wide eyed as her semblance of premonition activated itself. “Incoming!” she yelled to the others and they all dove behind something. The doors flew open as a bolt of lightning flew in, transforming into Matt who skidded to a halt. “Razor you old dog a round of MRLN and JABR specials!” he yelled to the bar tender. Razor and Zaffre popped up from behind the bar while Ash and Rouge scurried out from under the pool table. Razor spat out the half of bone still in his mouth having snapped it in the panic and said to Rouge, “I thought you said saw something bad coming.” “I saw the doors fly open and a bolt of lightning. I couldn’t tell what was coming,” she said in her own defense. “Razor I thought you were part wolf, not part puppy,” Jared joked as he walked in followed by the rest of them members of MRLN and LABR plus RWBY. “Hey Jared, when did you guys get back in town?” Razor asked as he started the drinks.

                They plopped themselves down on the stools as Jared said, “Oh just yesterday. We would have popped by but we didn’t want to ruin the surprise for MRLN.” “Goodwitch still at it I take,” Zaffre said. “Oh yeah,” Matt said as Razor handed him his Green Storm. “Is anyone going to explain any of this?” Ruby said. Matt chuckled a bit and explained, “You’ve probably noticed Glynda doesn’t like me and my team.” “No really,” Yang said sarcastically. Matt continued, “Well ever since we got jobs at Beacon, she has been trying to put us in our place. So for the past couple of years she has be sicking groups of huntsman on us like today, trying to beat some humility into us. Of course it never works.” “Why’s that?” Blake asked. “We don’t lose. She’s sent everybody after us at one time or another, even team RAZR here has had a go at it,” Matt said. “And as usual, we got our tails handed to us,” Razor said as he set down four drinks in front of the members of team RWBY, each drink matching the corresponding girl’s color.

                “What are these?” Yang asked as the girls looked at the drinks. “It took me a while but I think I was able to whip up something that fit your personalities,” Razor said. He pointed out the red drink in front of Ruby, “First we have the Rosebud.” “Ooo, is that strawberries I smell?” Ruby asked as she smelled the drink. Razor moved on to Weiss’s white drink, “Next we have the Ice Queen.” “Why does everybody call me that?” Weiss scoffed. Next came Blake’s dark purple, almost black drink, “For Blake we have the Black Cat, and yes it has tea in it.” Finally he came to Yang’s yellow drink, “Finally we have the Firecracker.” “Ooo, sounds like it’s got a kick,” Yang said. “Like you swallowed a whole fireworks display,” Razor said. The girls took their drinks and cautiously tested their drinks. “Hhhmm, not bad I thought I smelled strawberries.” “I’ll admit, Razor’s got some skill,” Weiss said. Blake took a second to savor her drink and said, “Tea, blackberries, and mint, well made.” Yang took a sip and popped up in her seat a little and said, “Dang that really does have a kick.”

                After that Razor whipped team JABR’s signature drinks Jared’s Golden Eye, Azure’s Shockercane, Behira’s Barb on the Rocks, and Rusty’s Rusty Guard. They took their drinks and Matt and Jared started playing pool. “Ok so we got drinks, now can you explain who these guys are Matt?” Ruby asked. “Back when we were in school teams JABR and MRLN were rivals,” Matt explained. “So that was why you were going at it so hard. I haven’t seen you go all out since our first class,” Yang said. Matt chuckled and said, “Actually, I was holding back then. If I went all out, you would be in the hospital with a few limbs short of a tree. At least Jared is skilled enough to take the full force and still walk away, even if he always loses.” That last sentence made Jared screw up his shot. “Well at least I don’t mention it every few minutes,” Jared said. “Scales for brains,” Matt shot back. Then as Jared took his next shot, he accidently brought his que back into Matt’s eye. “Owe!” Matt looked away as he held his eye. “Matt you alright?” Jared asked. “Yeah, fine,” he said as he brought his hand away from his eye. “Ah Matt,” Jared said as he pointed to his eye. “What?” Matt asked. “Your eye has gone from a gem to a precious metal,” Jared whispered. Matt realized what he was talking about and covered his eye again. “Hey Matt, you ok?” Yang asked. “Yeah I’m fine. Just got to go take a look at this,” Matt said as he went to the restroom.

                Matt stood at the mirror, looking at his eye. “Hey, you alright?” Jared asked as he entered in. “Yeah fine,” Matt said as he looked in the mirror. He reached into his jacket pocket and he pulled out a contact lens case. He took out a green colored contact lens and put it in the eye that got hit. “Why do you keep hiding it?” Jared asked. “It’s not the time. They don’t need to know, at least not now,” Matt said as they joined the others. Just as they finished their second round of drinks, Matt got a call. He answered, “hello, yeah, ah huh, got it, give us twenty minutes.” He hung up, “Yo Jared, the big Oz wants to talk.” Jared downed his drink and said, “Alright lets go.” Matt put down a several lien on the bar saying, “Next rounds on me. Well see you guys later,” as he and Jared walked out of the bar.

                Twenty minutes later Matt and Jared exited the elevator into Ozpin’s office. “Yo Ozpin, what’s up?” Matt asked. Ozpin was standing at the window, looking out over the school grounds. “Something is coming. Something dark and dangerous that I hoped I would never have to see again,” he said. “Oh boy. Any word from Qrow?” Matt asked. “Not since Amber was attacked. He’s gone dark looking for the attackers,” Ozpin answered. Matt and Jared joined Ozpin at the window. “So what are we going to do?” Jared asked. “I just hope you aren’t considering trying to unlock _her_ full abilities are you? She’s to young,” Matt said in a disapproving tone. “Of course not. Even you weren’t that young when you got your full abilities. However, we must do something about Amber. Half of her power was taken from her and absorbed by one of her attackers and she has been left on the edge of life. Right now Atlas science is the only thing keeping her alive,” Ozpin explained. “So what do we do about her,” Matt asked. “You two do nothing about Amber. Jared, I need you to find Qrow and any other information you can find on Amber’s attack. “Matt, you need to make sure that the students are ready to fight.” Ozpin said. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Matt said as the three gentlemen looked out over the sunset.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The newly introduced members of team JABR were made by my friend Emerald Dynamo from Fanfiction.net. https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4102874/Emerald-Dynamo


	8. Stokering the Fires of Rebellion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bored with how quiet Vale had been recently, the members of team RWBY go looking for trouble. Ironically after Matt tells them not to Beacon is the victim of theft and they go after the perpetrators only to cross paths with a team of the most destructive huntsmen to graduate Beacon.

                The weeks leading up to the Vytal Festival had begun to become long and boring for the members of team RWBY. Classes had become mundane and tedious and the girls of team RWBY had begun looking for trouble. They were in the library going through news reports looking for a bees’ nest to poke. “I think I found something, a series of robberies across Vale. They’ve stolen dust, weapons, vehicles, and even a shipment of airship parts,” Blake said. “Alright we got something to look into, now we need information. To Matt’s office!” Ruby said enthusiastically as the girls left to go to Matt’s office.

                The girls knocked on the door. “It’s open,” they heard Matt call from inside. The entered to find Matt at his large map screen as he turned it off, just before the girls could see. “What’s up girls?” Matt asked as he sat in his desk chair and started doing something on his computer. “Do you know anything about the rash of robberies across Vale lately?” Ruby asked. Matt stopped dead. He sighed as he turned to the girls, pushing up his glasses. He rested his elbows on the desk, interlocked his fingers with the index fingers pointing up as he tapped his forehead with them. “Oh brother. Let me guess, you guys have gotten a taste of the hunt and now you looking for more trouble aren’t you?” Matt asked. “Well I wouldn’t call it trouble,” Weiss said. Matt leaned back in his chair and said, “Look girls I understand that the thrill of the hunt is tempting but you are still just students. You’ve done amazing work given the circumstances with Torchwick and the White Fang and Vale thanks you for it, but you need to understand so much more.” “Well what else is there?” Yang asked in an annoyed tone. “Look, there are some things in this world that are not your business and should just be left alone. Right now, these are just a string of random robberies. You’re seeing patterns where they don’t exist. It’s a police matter and you need to understand that the police have been known to not be too friendly towards huntsmen and huntresses that get in their way,” Matt said. He went back to work on his computer as he said, “Just leave it alone and go back to your studies. If you’re bored play some game, prank someone, throw a party. Just please don’t get involved in something you don’t belong.” For once, the girls decided to listen to their teacher and not get involved.

                That night, several shadowy figures climbed over the wall, onto the Beacon Academy campus, and into the hanger. The next morning the entire campus was scared awake with a deafening scream, “NOOO!!!!!” Ruby and Yang jumped in their beds and fell to the ground while Blake and Weiss slammed their heads into the upper bunks. “What was that?!” Ruby demanded to know as all the girls sprung to their feet. They popped their heads out their door to see Matt and Ringo running down the hall in their pajamas, weapons in hand. Matt was wearing a green t shirt and black sweat pants while Ringo was wearing an oversized blue t shirt and yellow shorts. The girls followed and they rushed to the source of the scream.

                They followed Matt and Ringo to the hanger where they found Narco and Lulu, both in their pajamas. Narco was wearing a grey tank top and black gym shorts while Lulu was in a black tank top and purple and blue plaid pajama pants. Narco was panicking while Lulu was trying to calm him down. “Narco what the dust happened?!” Matt demanded to know. Narco could speak, he just pointed into the hanger. They looked up to see half the complement of bullheads gone, as were several shipping crates of parts and dust fuel that were delivered the day before. Matt couldn’t believe it. “What is going on?” Ozpin asked as he and Glynda came. “We’ve been robbed!” Matt said as he gestured at the half empty hanger. Ozpin and Glynda looked and their eyes went wide. “How could this happen? I thought Narco lived in the hanger,” Glynda demanded to know. “Narco has got to be one of the heaviest sleepers in Remnant. You could shell the building he’s in and he wouldn’t even turn over. Sleeping through the launch of several dozen Bullheads is nothing to him,” Lulu said. Matt was dumbstruck. No he was angry. Someone had broken into his school and stolen from them. “Girls do you remember what I told you last night about leaving those thieves alone?” Matt asked in a fake kind tone. “Yeah,” they said in small voices. His voice changed to sheer anger, “Screw it. We are going to fry these freaks!”

                That afternoon, the girls joined the members of team MRLN in Matt’s office. “Alright, so how are we going to find these guys?” Yang asked. “Well every Bullhead has an intermittent tracking device in it,” Narco said as he started typing at Matt’s computer. The girls were confused. “Basically each craft has a tracking device in it that sends a signal every five minutes the craft is active and signals end of operating time. I really need to upgrade them,” he explained and then pressed enter. Matt’s large map screen lit up with a map of the capital and various colored dots lit up. “These dots show where the bullheads were when their beacons signaled.” So how does this help? All it shows us is where they were, not where they are now,” Weiss said. “Well with these points we can extrapolate their courses,” Narco answered. He pressed several keys and lines connected the dots into paths. “There,” Matt said as he pointed at an abandoned farm on the outskirts of Vale.

                An hour later, they rolled up to the farm. Matt, Narco, and Yang had ridden their motorcycles while Ringo, Lulu, and the other three members of team RWBY road in Narco’s pickup. Matt brought a set of binoculars to his eyes. Through them he could see a group of people pushing a bullhead into one of several barns. “There they are,” Matt said smiling. “So what are we going to do?” Weiss asked from the back of the pickup.  Matt drew his sword and was about to rev his engine when they heard a cannon shot in the distance and a shell flew out of the nearby tree line, hit a water tank in the farm. Water flowed out washing away many of the criminals. Several more shells fired towards the farm as a slanted back armored Humvee burst out of the trees. On the top was a turret hatch with a man standing in it with a large cannon like weapon mounted to the roof. The back hatch opened and a man with wings under his arms flew out the back connected to the Humvee by a cable, pulling him along like a kite.

                The young man on the cable had slicked back black hair with a pair of bat ears and a pair of black and silver flight goggles on his eyes. We wore a zipped up black leather jacket with a red interior and sides, and the sleeves rolled back to just before his elbows. He had a red harness of sorts on his upper torso, dark jeans, black boots, and two gauntlets. He also had red bandanas tied around his left knee, right upper arm, and around his neck covering his lower face. He had bat wings running along his arms and extending about a foot past his hands.

                “Is that Stoker?” Lulu asked. “What the dust are he and his team doing here?” said Narco. Stoker disconnected his cord and glided down towards the thieves. His gauntlets converted into submachine guns and he fired down at the thieves as passed over. “Oh boy, If that is team STKR (Stoker) then we better get in there,” Narco said. “Why? Why don’t we let these guys take care of it?” Weiss asked. “Because team STKR has a reputation of leaving a lot of collateral damage behind them,” Matt said as he revved his engine and charged in, sword drawn. Narco drew his shotgun and Yang primed her gauntlets as she took off in a wheelie. Lulu hopped in the back bed of the pickup with the other girls and popped a tripod out of the bottom of her machinegun as she said to the girls, “Ok Ruby take the left side, Blake on the right, Weiss cover the back with ice shots, I’ll cover the front.” She rested the tripod on the roof of the cabin and pulled back the primer. “If they’re shooting at you, shoot back, and hold on tight. Ringo gun it!” Ringo put the pedal to the metal and they rocketed down the dirt road behind the three on the bikes.

                Matt blew through the front gate slashing on of the guards, Narco blasted another, and Yang threw two punches blasting the other two. They began systematically taking down criminal after criminal. As Stoker began to get closer to the ground, he fired a cable from one of his gauntlets onto the ground. A built in high powered winch reeled to accelerate him, allowing him to gain speed, and climb to a higher altitude. A sniper popped out of a hatch on the roof of one of the barns and tried to shoot Stoker down. He came around, flying strait at the sniper. His gauntlets converted to a pair of Katar blades and he closed his wings. He flew into the sniped as he stabbed into him and fell into the hatch with the sniper. One of the criminals got a lucky shot in and hit on of the tires on the pickup with the girls in it. The truck drifted into a stop and the girls used it for cover. “Great,” Matt said to himself. He pulled over next to the humvee’s driver window. The driver rolled down the window. “Rune, I need you guys to cover the girls. We need to regroup and take out the guys in the barns!” he yelled to the driver who was apparently named Rune.  “Matt what are you guys doing here?!” the gunner yelled down from his cannon in a British accent. “I’ll explain later Kirk. For now we got to save the girls,” Matt answered. Kirk gave a quick salute and the Humvee turned to go to the girls. Matt hit the auto pilot on his bike and jumped off the back and began slashing through criminals as he busted into another barn.

                The girls back at the truck were doing their best to hold off the advancing criminals, but they weren’t making much of a dent. Then the Humvee blew in and skidded to a halt as three men jumped out.

                The man from the turret named Kirk converted the cannon into what looked like a large cross as he jumped down. He wore a black flat top army cap with a pair of welding style goggles on them over his dark blue hair. He had a white shirt under a dark blue vest with a silver pocket watch chain hanging out and a black coat that extended a foot past his hips. His slacks were black as were his boots and he wore a blue belt and a bandoleer of cannon shells across his chest. He held the cross under his arm, his hand on a pistol grip handle on the intersection of the cross, the long bottom section pointed to his foes.

                Next to him stood a Native American looking man with long brown hair and a green headband with feathers hanging off the side. He wore a green tank top under a brown leather vest with green details, grey cargo pants, and brown boots. He had various tribal tattoos on his arms, a quiver along his back hip and a shoulder pad on his shoulder. In his hand he held a bow as he pulled out an arrow and notched it.

                Finally there was the driver. He had spiky green hair and one green eye while the other eye couldn’t be seen. The right half of his face was covered in metal and he had a glowing emblem of an on button symbol. He wore a long black coat with green detailing and a high zipped up collar that hid everything bellow his eyes and a split up the back. His pants were black and his sneakers green. However, there were a few things strange about him. He had what looked like metal snake heads on his back connected to a strange metal device running up his spine and a cable like tail with a plug on the end wagging behind him. He had a wide blade sword hanging off his black belt along with several metal pouches.

                The man with green hair drew his sword and converted it into a rifle and the three of them fired on the advancing criminals. As the next wave approached the man with the cross snapped his fingers and a wall of blue flames erupted to prevent the enemy advance. The man with the bow turned to the girls, “Are you all ok?” “We’re fine Talon,” Lulu answered. “Let’s clean house,” said Kirk. The eyes on the snake heads on Rune’s back glowed as the heads extended out on articulating cables. A blade extended from each head as Rune converted his gun back to a sword. Kirk pulled back the priming handle on his cannon and he began to load several new shells from his bandoleer. “Stick to ice dust guys. We need to keep down on the needless destruction. That’s Beacon property they stole in there,” Ringo told them. Kirk loaded ice dust rounds while Talon pressed a button on his quiver. The drum at the bottom spun around and replaced the heads of several arrows with ice dust arrows. “Go!” Rune yelled as he and Talon charged while Kirk took a knee and started firing.

                Talon jumped over the fire and let 6 arrows fly at once, striking six different targets incasing them in ice. He turned to fire another shot and then spun to block another thug from slashing him. He spun back the other way and stabbed another thug with the bladed end of his bow. He swept his leg under another as he fired another set of arrows over him. He back flipped out of the way of another attack and snapped his bow in two, converting it into a pair of tomahawks. He slashed through another dozen criminals and kicked his way into one of the barns to start clearing it out.

                Rune slashed at one criminal and then another. The ten snake heads stabbed out in various directions, taking out several thieves. They retracted back and he stabbed 4 of them into the ground propelling him over several more of thugs. The snakes each aimed at a criminal and opened their mouths to reveal gun barrels. The fired a volley, stunning them with lightning dust energy shots. He launched the snake heads at the door to another barn. They opened revealing fangs and they locked into the door. He dug his feet in and the reeled in the snake heads. His strength was impressive. He tore the doors off of their hinges and charged into the building.

                Kirk was taking out thieves in droves. Every shot of his cannon dropped half a dozen men with every shot. He then charged at them, trailing a path of blue fire behind him, and rammed the end on his cannon into one of the criminal. He pulled a secondary trigger and a pneumatic pile bunker under the barrel drove into the criminal, sending him flying into several others. Kirk spun the cross up so he was holding it by the main body and swung it into another thief like a hammer. On impact a reactive smaller cannon in the cross section went off, causing him to spin the other way. He slammed into another thief. He brought the cannon back into its firing position and pulled the priming handle, ejecting a shell. He fired at the door to the last barn and charged in, trailing blue flames.

                Matt and Narco pulled up to the girls as small explosions and hundreds of gun shots went off in the barns. “What’s going on in there?” Ruby asked. “I swear, if they break one of my precious Bullheads, I’ll chop them to pieces,” Narco said. Suddenly the barns went silent. The doors on each barn blew open with smoke billowing out. Dozens of thieve ran out of the barns and fled the farm. Talon, Kirk, and Rune each walked out of the barns dusting themselves off. As thieve ran out of Stoker’s barn, Stoker dashed out pasted them slapping small disks about the diameter of a softball with a red blinking light on each one. He skidded to a halt in front of them holding out two remotes with big red buttons. He flipped the guard covers off the buttons and pressed them and the disks exploded with ice dust, encasing them in ice. The members of teams MRLN and RWBY stood down. “You guys better not have damaged my Bullheads!” Narco yelled at the members of team STKR as they walked up to join them, stowing their weapons. “Hey our work is flawless,” Stoker retorted. “All of your great metal birds are intact,” Talon added. “Great metal birds?” Weiss asked Lulu. “Talon was raised in a small tribal group in Vacuo. Before leaving them, he had never seen modern technology and he still has some problems understanding some technology,” Lulu said.

                “Yeah well you didn’t think ahead as usual. You scared off all the bad guys. Now how are we going to track them down again?” Matt said in an annoyed tone. “Rune,” Stoker said looking to the creepy young man. Rune had produced a handheld videogame and was too focused to notice. “Rune,” Stoker tried again. Rune still said nothing. Stoker walked over and took the game from his teammate’s hands. “Rune, did you get one?” Stoker asked. “Youch!” they heard from behind them and Rune pointed back towards the sound. A thief jumped out of a barrel he was hiding in, chased by a green snake. Rune launched one of his snake heads and it grabbed onto the thief. He pulled him over and gave him to Kirk. “Let’s see if the light of the maidens can ‘enlighten’ you, shall we?” Kirk said in a devious tone as he dragged the thief off to do who knows what.

                Then the snake that had chased the guy out of the barrel came towards them. “Ah! Snake!” Weiss scream. She drew her Rapier to stab the animal when Rune grabbed her arm to stop her. He just shook his head and knelt down. He held out his hand to the snake as spiraled its way up his arm and loosely wrapped itself around his neck, resting its head on his shoulder. When they got a better look at the snake they could see it was mechanical and had glowing red eyes. “That’s Venom, his pet mechanical snake. Don’t worry he doesn’t bite. Well not unless told to and when he does his fangs function as injection needles for a powerful sedative. Depending on the dose his bite could put you out anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 days,” Stoker explained. “Oh where are our manners? We never introduced ourselves. I’m Stoker Alucard.” “Talon Forest, it is a pleasure,” Talon said with a small bow. They looked to Rune just to see he had gone back to his video game. Stoker sighed in annoyance. “And this is Rune Gremlin. You’ll have to forgive him, he’s not the most sociable of people,” Stoker said.

                “Stoker, Shay says the thieves have scattered in all directions. There’s no way we can be sure which one would lead us to their main hide out,” Talon said. “Alright, call him back. There’s nothing more he can do out there,” Stoker said. “Who’s Shay?” Blake asked. As she finished, a falcon flew down and landed on Talon’s shoulder pad. Talon pulled a small dead mouse from a pouch on his belt and tossed it up as the bird grabbed it out of the air. “He’s Shay,” Talon said as the bird scarfed down the rodent. “How could a bird tell you anything?” Blake asked, not believing him. “My semblance allows me to commune with animals. It’s not as if he can speak a language to me but his thoughts can communicate basic ideas,” Talon explained. Ruby walked up and took a closer looked at the bird. Shay looked back at her tilting its head to the side. She smiled at the bird and he jumped over onto her head. Ruby froze, “Ah Mr. Talon, what’s he doing?” Shay had a light grip and didn’t dig his talons into her head, but she was scared to move worried it would anger him. “Don’t worry, that just means he likes you,” Talon said. Ruby relaxed and began to move again.

                Kirk came back dragging their prisoner. The thief was dazed, but didn’t appear to have a scratch on him. The girls could only wonder what he could have done to him. “Well he’s only a grunt; he doesn’t know anything worth much. However, he did say that their boss had a computer,” Kirk informed them. “I think I saw an office of some sort in the barn I cleared out,” Stoker said. They entered the barn Stoker had cleared out. They found their way into the back where they found a makeshift office. “Rune, See what you can find,” Stoker said. Rune sat down at the desk in front of the computer and he brought up his tail. He unscrewed the plug on the end of his tail and replaced it with a computer jack. He plugged it into the computer and sat back, staring up at the ceiling in a trance. “What’s he doing?” Weiss asked in confusion. “He’s going through the data on the terminal,” Stoker said. “But he’s just sitting there,” Weiss argued. “Well, Rune isn’t a normal person, he’s a cyborg. His father is a scientist in Atlas and for a scientist in Atlas, if you don’t work for the Schnee Dust Company you worked for the military. Unfortunately the military there tends to rush science which leads to accidents. One day when Rune was visiting his father in the lab there was an accident. Rune was mangled in the blast, burns, severed limbs, shredded vocal cords, and of course he lost an eye. His father used his research to save him but now 57% of his body is synthetic. Whatever you do, don’t bring up the Atlas military around him. He doesn’t talk much but if you bring that up, he will rant until you go deaf,” Stoker told them.

                Rune sat up as he came out of his trance. “What have you got?” Stoker asked. Rune looked up and a hologram projector in his eye plate activated. The projection focused and revealed a White Fang emblem. “The White Fang?” Blake said in shock. The projection changed to show various reports and Stoker started reading through them. “Not quite,” Stoker said. “Stoker maybe its time you told us what you guys are doing here,” Matt said.

                Stoker sighed, “Fine, what do you know about the Crawly shipyards in southern Vale?” “They make airships primarily for civilian use,” Blake answered. “They wouldn’t want us to tell you this, but they are trying to branch out into military craft. Recently they were just about finished with a new prototype battleship that would make the standard Atlas cruisers obsolete. 3 weeks ago the craft was stolen out of dry dock and vanished without a trace.” “So the White Fang stole a battleship?!” Blake said in an alarmed tone. “Not exactly, the White Fang have been a little divided as of late. These guys are a renegade faction that is more interested in the destruction of the current world order than the plight of the Faunus,” Stoker said. “So that’s why there were humans along with Faunus here,” Lulu said. “Wait let me get this straight. These guys have a highly advance battleship with the potential to destroy cities and they just sent four huntsman after it?” Weiss said. “Well lucky for us the ship wasn’t complete. The Crawly Airship Company told us the ship runs on a very specific formula of dust and the she wouldn’t have had enough fuel to get too far. Plus most of the ship’s system including the weapons systems are nonfunctional,” he assured them. “So then the ship is useless,” Lulu said. “Well not quite. A few days after the ship was stolen, someone broke into the company again and stole the formula for the ships dust fuel. Over the past several weeks these renegades have been stealing components to finish the ship themselves and the necessary Dust to synthesize the fuel for it. The Crawly Airship Company hired us to find and retrieve the ship. But if absolutely necessary, we are to destroy it.” Kirk said. 

                The projection from Rune change to a map and a point on it lit up. Rune nodded towards the hologram. “What’s that?” Ruby asked. Its and abandoned Dust mine. It looks like it’s a huge hole in the side of a cliff, 500 yards deep, 200 across, 200 tall. That sounds like it could easily accommodate an airship,” Kirk said. “That’s got to be it,” Stoker said. “Let’s lock and load,” Kirk said. “Hold it pyro, we’re coming with you,” Matt said. “No thanks,” Stoker said. “Stoker these guys have the potential to over through a kingdom, four huntsman are not going to cut it.” “Please, I glide in under the cover of night plant some charges and send the whole place up in a ball of fire,” Stoker said holding up a small metal disc with a red light on it which they assumed was an explosive charge. “I don’t care if you’re a sabotage expert Stoker. You guys can keep the reward. We’re coming with you,” Matt said. “Wait how big is the reward?” Narco said jokingly. “Fine, We’ll strike tonight. We work better in the dark,” Stoker said admitting defeat. “Alright let’s kick some White Fang butt!” Ruby said enthusiastically. “You’re not coming,” Matt said in an assertive tone. “What?!” the members of team RWBY said in unison as they looked to him. “This mission is too big for a team of first year students. Let’s go back to Beacon and then _we’ll_ leave at sun down,” Matt said gesturing to his and Stoker’s teams. The girls were obviously disappointed on the ride back.

                The members of teams MRLN and STKR went to Matt’s office while the members of team RWBY returned to their dorm room. “Man, I can’t believe Matt just cut us out like that,” Ruby complained. “Oh, Matt’s always been a little protective of us,” Yang added. “Yeah we are practically his little sisters to him,” Ruby said. “Well what’s the one thing that little sisters never do for their older brother?” Yang asked. “Listen to them,” Ruby said enthusiastically. “So what we’re going to follow them on foot? That Map showed that those renegades are several miles out of town,” Weiss argued. Of course not, we’ll stow away in Narco’s truck. Come on, let’s go,” Yang said enthusiastically.

                Team STKR’s Humvee, Narco’s pickup and Narco and Matt’s bikes rolled up on a vantage point overlooking the old mine. Matt and Stoker crawled to the edge and looked down at the mine through binoculars. They saw the airship as well as a small army of White Fang renegades. “You were right, they are finishing it,” Matt said watching White Fang engineers work on the ship. “Ok, I count about 200 armed man pulse maybe 100 men working on the outside of the ship. We can’t tell how many may be on the inside. I say I glide in, plant some charges on the best points to cause chaos while Ringo, Talon, and Kirk provide long range fire to draw their defenses. Then the rest of us move in through their blind spot and…oh guano,” Stoker said. “What’s wrong?” Matt asked. “South east corner, being escorted by some goons,” Stoker said. Matt changed his focus to the point Stoker gave him and his heart skipped a beat. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang; all being pushed into a cell. “Son of the Dust!” Matt cursed and the two crawled back to the others. “Alright, so what’s the plan?” Kirk asked. Matt groaned, “We got a problem.”

                “What?! Ruby and the other girls got captured? What are they doing here? How did they even get here?” Ringo demanded to know. Narco started pacing in panic when he noticed that the tarp he kept in the back of his pickup was disturbed. “I think I know. Someone’s been in the back of my truck. They must have stowed away and snuck out when we stopped at that fork in the road that lead up here,” Narco said. “This is why I told them to stay. They don’t think far enough ahead.” Matt griped. “So I’ll ask again, what’s the plan?” Kirk asked.

                Matt and Kirk calmed down and started to think. “Rune, do a high detail scan of the area, but don’t reveal our location or existence,” Stoker requested. Rune crawled over to the cliff’s edge and began scanning the area with his cybernetic eye. A few minutes later he crawled back to the others. “Alright, give us a 3D topographical map of the area for say, 3 mile radius of the airship,” Stoker requested. Rune’s eye projected a 3D map of the area and they gathered around. “Highlight tactical points for me, sniper points with good lines of sight, explosive material, weak points in the mine itself, and guard patrols,” Stoker requested. Various points lit up across the map showing various tactical advantages. One thing about team STKR, they may leave a lot of collateral damage but they never go in without a plan. They make sure they know where everything is and how to make it work for them.

                “So are we going to steal it or destroy it?” Matt asked. “It looks like the engines are in pieces. I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to start it up. Plus we don’t know if they refilled the fuel,” Narco said. “As always I defer to the mechanical expert,” Matt said. Stoker agreed, “Alright, retrieving it is out of the question. So that means we have to destroy it or at least disable it to the point it’s not worth it to these guys.” “And we need to save the girls,” Matt added. “So what do we do, blow the ships power reactor?” Kirk asked. “No, if their working on the engines they probably drained the fuel supply in order to work on it safely. If we try to blow it, all we’ll do is damage the engine and set them back a while. We need to make sure that when we’re done this is done and buried,” Matt said. Then his eyes went wide with an epiphany. “That’s it! We bury it,” Matt said. He pointed at several support pylons around the mine. “These pylons support the whole mine. If we destroy them and then destabilize the cavern ceiling, the whole cavern will collapse on top of the ship.” “Rune, will it work?” Stoker asked. Rune took a second to process the variables with his cybernetic mind. When he was done he nodded.  “Well if the cyber brain thinks it will work, it will work,” Stoker said.

                “Alright, here’s the plan,” Matt said as he began to lay out his plan. “Stealth will be important for the first stages. Stoker you’ll glide in and land near the top of the cavern. Using you grappling lines you’ll work your way along the walls. Plant charges on the weak points of the supports and along the ceiling. Be sure to set the charges on supports to a separate detonation code. We’re going to want to take out the supports and the ceiling at separate times,” “Got it,” Stoker said as he started programing his charges. Matt continued “Kirk you stay here. You’ll provide long range artillery cover during the infiltration.” He pointed a ridge line close to the mine. “Lulu you’ll take a position here. Use your golems as infantry to draw their defenses. Kirk you’ll cover her.” “Check,” Lulu said. “Lock and load,” Kirk added. Matt pointed to two points further back than the one he assigned Lulu. “Ringo, Talon, you’ll set up in sniper positions. You two will cover me and Narco. Ringo, you got your silencer?” Matt asked. “Yeah,” she answered. “Good, we don’t want to give them any reason to suspect. Alright, during the siege, Narco and I will use his shadows to sneak in behind them. Rune will get us in close in the humvee, but then we’ll use his semblance. We’ll load our bikes into the back of the pickup. We’ll sneak to the girls and spring them. Ringo and Talon will cover us. By this point Stoker should be done and will meet us at the cell. Unfortunately Narco can’t move that many people threw the shadows at once, so we will have to fight our way out through their weak point. Rune you will drive in to pull us out. Use the Humvee, it has better armor. When we meet up, Narco will take the wheel. Rune, you will get in the hatch and provide cover as we escape since you have the most guns.” Rune nodded. “Once we’re in the Humvee and driving away, we detonate the support charges. Hopefully, they’ll take that as a sign. I don’t want any more casualties than necessary. We’ll give them a few minutes the blow the roof of the place, burying the ship. After the supports have been blown Kirk, Lulu, Ringo, and Talon will stop their assault and retreat to this point here.” Matt pointed at another point on the map. “Kirk will bring the pickup and drive you out of there.” “Got it,” Kirk said. “Everyone clear on the plan?” Matt asked. They were all in agreement. “Everyone got an ear piece?” Matt asked. Everyone held one out. “Alight sync up and scatter. I assume we all remember our old call signs” They synced their ear pieces and scattered.

                Stoker spread his wings and jumped off the cliff. The other left to reach their various positions. Stoker glided into the cavern. Thanks to his dark clothing, he blended into the darkness of the night sky and the shadows of on the cave walls. He used his grappling hooks to zip from point to point as he got close to the first pylon. He zipped onto it and planted several charges on the post out of sight. He moved onto the next pylon. However, there was a guard patrolling near it. He had to take care of him. He glided down behind him. He grabbed him covering his mouth so he couldn’t scream. Then he sunk his fangs into his shoulder. Stoker’s semblance allowed him to either suck aura out of others to enhance his strength and speed or knock them out cold. The life seemed to drain form the guard as Stoker pulled him behind a barrel. He made sure the guard was silenced and continued his work.

                By this point Lulu had reached her assigned point. “This is Creeper, I have reached my assigned point, awaiting signal,” she said into her earpiece. Matt and Narco had just gotten of their bikes and were making their way on foot. Matt spoke into his ear piece, “This is Storm Front, Egg Corn, Arrow Head have you reached your points?” “This is Egg Corn. I’m set up and awaiting orders,” Ringo said. She was sitting in a tree with her boomerang in its rifle form, bracing herself against the branches. “Arrow Head, on station,” Talon said. He was hiding in a bush, looking for targets through Shay’s eyes. “Alright, Serpent you ready,” Matt asked. Rune grunted on the other end. “Fangs, how far are you?” Matt asked. “7 more,” Stoker said. “Good, Grease Monkey and I are close. Preacher, Creeper began operation” Matt said. Kirk had converted his cross cannon so the short cross section had slid up further to become a bipod and the barrel extended for range.

                “Let their sins be cleansed by fire,” Kirk said as he opened up on the outer areas of the renegades’ compound. Lulu threw out several dozen dust crystals and they turned into golems. She jumped up over the low ridge she was hiding behind and opened fire. The renegades were taken completely by surprise. In the panic they moved the bulk of their guards to fight off Lulu.

                While the guards were busy, Matt and Narco moved in. Narco stepped out of a shadow pulling Matt through with him. As soon as they came out the ducked behind a crate, just before a guard saw them. “Egg Corn we need a threat removed,” Matt said into his ear piece. A second later a lightning dust bullet whizzed by and knocked out the guard. They advanced. Matt came up behind a guard and pistol whipped him, knocking him out. Then they came to a group of four guards. “Egg Corn, Arrow Head, four guard pack in front of us. Egg Corn take the front left, Arrow Head the front right. We’ll get the back two ourselves,” Matt said. Matt and Narco snuck up behind the back two guards. They grabbed the back two guards, covering their mouths so they couldn’t yell. Matt used his semblance to shock his unconscious while Narco jabbed him in the back of the head to knock him out. At the same time they were doing this, a bullet and an arrow struck the two front guards knocking them out.

                Over in the cell, the members of team RWBY were moping and griping about their bad decisions. “I knew we shouldn’t have come,” Weiss complained. “I knew we shouldn’t have taken the other road at that fork they stopped at,” Blake griped. “I knew we shouldn’t have tried to do this ourselves,” Yang added. The other three girls looked at her in angry disappointment yelling, “This was your idea!” “Well looky here, a four pack of deaf girls who can’t listen to their teacher,” they heard behind them. They turned to see Matt and Narco. Narco was holding the unconscious body of the guard who was watching them while Matt used electromagnetism to tear apart the lock. Ruby dashed out of the cage and hugged him as she began to say, “Oh Matt, thank the dust we thought we were done for. We’re so sorry and…” He pried her off and gave them a stern look, “We will talk about this later.” “Hey you!” they heard a guard yell behind them. They had been spotted. “Egg Corn, Arrow Head we need cover,” he said into his ear piece. “I don’t have a shot,” Ringo said. “Me neither,” Talon added. Just as they thought they were done for, Stoker dropped down onto the guy. He bit into him and knocked him out. The girls were shocked. Matt actually had to muzzle Ruby to keep her from screaming. “Calm down,” he said and he let go of her. “He’s a vampire,” Ruby said in a panic. Stoker walked up, wiping his mouth on his arm. “I’m not a vampire. My semblance lets me syphon aura from people. I can either absorb it to increase my speed, strength, and agility, or I can feed it back into them which kind of short circuits them and knocks them out,” Stoker explained. “It’s still creepy,” Ruby said. “Yeah, yeah, yeah can we focus on getting out of here?” Narco complained as he handed the girls their weapons that he had retrieved from a crate near the cell.

                “Right, we’ll talk about this later,” Matt said in a stern tone. “All hands, the gem is in the ring, begin stage two. Serpent, we are on our way to the extraction point,” Matt said into his ear piece. Rune grunted on the other end. They began to shoot and slash their way out and made their way to Rune and the Humvee. Off course there distraction couldn’t hold up forever. “Hey, their escaping!” one of the renegades yelled. Some of the renegades started firing at them. Matt and the others reached their pickup point, Rune drifted into a stop between them and their attackers. Rune popped out of the turret hatch with his snake heads deployed and his sword in rifle form. He opened up on the renegades while the others piled into the Humvee. Narco gunned it and they sped away. “Stoker blow it!” Matt yelled. Stoker took out a detonator. He flipped the guard cover off the button and pressed the button. The charges on the pylons blew and they collapsed.

                Lulu, Talon, Kirk, and Ringo pulled out from their positions. Kirk picked the others up at their pick up point and they met up with the others in the Humvee. When they got a good distance from the mine the two vehicles drifted to a stop. “Alright Stoker blow the roof off the place!” Matt said. Stoker flipped up the guard button over the switch but didn’t press it. “Care to do the honors?” Stoker said offering Matt the detonator. Matt took the device. “Here’s to the hunt!” Matt yelled and pressed the detonator. The charges on the ceiling of the mine went off and the mine collapsed, burying the ship in several thousand tons of rock and dirt. “Well that takes care of that,” Lulu said. “Just like that job we pulled in east Mistral,” Kirk added. “Well there’s only one think left to do,” Matt said. “What’s that?” Yang asked.

                Thirty minutes later Matt bolted through the front door of the Moon’s Den. “Razor?” Matt called out. Razor slowly surfaced from behind the bar shuddering, a turkey bone hanging loosely from his mouth like a toothpick. “st st st stop doing that!” Razor stuttered out. “Awe, is the doggy afraid of thunder?” Stoker joked as he walked in with his team. “I’m part wolf bat brain,” Razor shot back. Razor dusted himself off from when he dove down as Matt blew in. “So one Blood Blast, an Eagle Eye, a Blue Blaze, and a Venom Circuit I assume?” Razor asked rhetorically as he started mixing drinks. He passed out the drinks in order of the team’s anagram first Stoker, then Talon, followed by Kirk, and finally Rune. “I swear Rune, I don’t get how you drink that,” Lulu said. Rune didn’t even look up from his game. Venom partially uncurled himself from Rune’s neck and unzipped his collar. He then coiled tightly around the drink and brought it up to Runes mouth. In one simultaneous movement, he downed the whole drink at once. “What exactly is in that?” Weiss asked.

                Razor threw another Venom Circuit together and set it in front of the members of lined up team RWBY with four straws. “Only try a drop, if you want to taste again,” Razor said. Each girl took a straw and dipped it into the mysterious beverage. They sealed the ends of the straws with their fingers and removed a sample of the drink. “So who wants to go first?” Ruby asked hesitantly. “On three,” Blake said. The girls tilted their heads back, holding the straw over their open mouths. “One…Two… Three,” Yang said and the girls let the drink fill into their mouths. As soon as the liquid hit their tongues, their bodies went stiff and they passed out. A second later they sprang to their feet and started running around like chickens with their heads cut off screaming. Their seniors burst into laughter, well except for Rune. Razor put four glasses of water on the bar and the girls dashed over and chugged them down. “What the dust was that?!” Ruby demanded to know. “My tongue feels like a book they tried to cram too many words into,” Blake added. “How does Rune drink that?!” Yang finished. “Rune’s tongue was damaged in his accident so he need a drink with way to much flavor if he wants to get any sort of taste,” Stoker explained.

                Razor whipped up a batch of the signature drink he had come up with for team RWBY and handed them to the girls saying, “I think these will be more your speed.” The girls hopped up on the bar stools and sipped their drinks, washing away the last of the torturous Venom Circuit. “Man you guys were awesome out there tonight,” Ruby said. “Yeah you guys were almost as good as a team of Atlas Specialists,” Weiss said. “No!” everyone yelled. Rune instinctively popped up from his game with a furious look in his eye as he started ranting. His voice was sounded mechanical and sounded as if it was echoing off metal. “The Atlas military is a pile glory hounds and sell outs that have no respect for the occupation of a huntsman!” “You had to say it,” Matt told Weiss in an annoyed tone. Before Rune had a chance to continue Kirk said, “Rune, someone just beat your high score.” Rune stopped cold and went back to his game to defend his high score. “Thank the dust. If we didn’t shut him up quick, he would have gone for hours,” Razor said.

                Yang sighed, “I’m just glad we got out of there unscathed.” Matt came up behind the girls, draping his arms behind them as he said, “Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” His voice had a devious tone with a hint of anger. The four girls stiffened in their seats. “You girls disobeyed a direct order to stay at Beacon and to make matters worse, you got yourselves captured complicating our operation.” He continued. “But you break rules all the time,” Weiss argued. “Those are Goodwitch’s rules and I don’t risk anyone’s life,” he retorted. “But Matt,” Yang begin to argue when he silenced her saying, “Sorry Yang, but this is where I must draw the line between being you honorary older brother and being your teacher.” Ruby knew this wasn’t going well for them and decided to cut her losses.

                She tried to dash out of there with her semblance only to have Matt catch her by the hood and holding her off the ground by it like a prized catch. “Going somewhere?” he asked rhetorically. Ruby let out a small guilty laugh. “Did you just try to ditch us?!” Weiss said in shocked disappointment. “You don’t understand he…” Matt stopped Ruby there and finished the answer. “Clearly Ruby and Yang haven’t told you just how vindictive I can be,” he said in a devious tone. “Are we going to have to wash Bullheads?” Ruby asked hesitantly, Matt still holding her off the ground by her hood like a dog holding its puppy. “Physical labor is Goodwitch’s idea of punishment. I am for more, creative,” Matt answered as he backed off, confident the girls wouldn’t run. “What do you mean by creative?” Blake asked hesitantly. Matt sat down at one of the tables and put his feet up. He took a sip of his drink and explained, “punishment comes in four flavors; labor, fines, pain, and humiliation. Labor is Goodwitch’s thing, school policy doesn’t allow lashing for pain, and with Weiss on your side fines aren’t much of a punishment. So that leaves one thing.” “Humiliation,” the girls groaned in unison. “As luck would have it the charity fair coming up and there are a few booths that still need _volunteers_ to man them,” he said with a devious smirk. “That doesn’t sound so bad,” Weiss said. “I’ll let you four take your pick. There’s the dunk tank, the pay to splat a pie in someone’s face booth, the kissing booth, and of course the live target water gun range needs a life target,” He said. “We’re screwed,” was all the girls could say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on team STKR go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-STKR-654408825


	9. Respect Your Elders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After taking their lumps for messing up teams MRLN and STKR's mission, team RWBY is assigned to investigate a string of arson cases along with Matt. Unfortunately for him they will be forced to call upon the expertise of a particular huntress Matt would much rather prefer to do without.

                It had been calm in Vale since the incident the White Fang renegades but for the girls of team RWBY, things were not so great. Matt had made good on his threat of punishment for the girls disobeying him and stowing away on teams MRLN and STKR’s mission.

                Every year Beacon holds a carnival fundraiser and since their freshman year, the members of team MRLN had been put in charge of organizing it. Narco was in charge of all the food vendors, on top of his own ever popular barbeque stand. Ringo was in charge of ticket sales and rides, and Lulu was in charge games. Matt was wandering the grounds keeping an eye on things, but he just couldn’t help but drop by his favorite set of booths over and over again. Matt had decided to punish the girls of team RWBY by making them work booths that were far less popular with the volunteers. Yang had become very popular in the kissing booth. Weiss’s booth was personalized for her. Matt called it Cream the Ice Queen which she hated. For two Lien anyone could give the stuck up heiress a cream pie to the face. Blake’s dislike of water was put to the test as she was assigned the dunk tank, and little Ruby was a live moving target in a high powered squirt gun range.

                “Having fun girls?” he asked sarcastically. Ruby shook out her soaked hair and sarcastically said, “Yeah, a blast.” Weiss toweled off her face for the umpteenth time that day. “Was the booth name really necessary?” she asked. “It draws in more business which means more money,” he answered as he picked up a baseball and threw it at the target for Blake’s dunk tank. He hit it right on the mark, dropping Blake in the tank with a feline squeal. She surfaced and pushed the soaked hair out of her eyes saying, “Did you have to put the cat in the wet job?” “You’d be to hard a target for the other games,” he answered. “At least you don’t have to kiss any slob with a lien,” Yang said. “Just be happy that Cardin is not here, and more importantly that this is only a one day event. Don’t worry,” Matt said as he looked at his watch. “You only got another two hours.” The girls groaned.

                By the time the day was over, the girls were cold, clammy, and uncomfortable. They completely forgot about dinner, deciding to curl up in bed and do their best to keep warm. “Thank the dust it’s over,” Weiss said. Then her stomach growled. “Oops, we forgot dinner didn’t we?” Yang said. “Agh, I don’t want to have to go back out,” Blake said, then as if on que, Matt burst through the door pushing in a cart with a large pot and several sets of bowls and spoons. “This isn’t another part of our punishment is it?” Ruby asked. “No your punishment is over,” Matt said. “Then what’s this?” Yang asked gesturing towards the cart. “Dinner, a Vert family special,” he answered. He took off the lid of the pot, letting steam and the scent of the contents rise out. Ruby and Yang caught a whiff and were drawn to the pot. “Is this your mom’s recipe?” Ruby asked. “I’m not my mom but I’d like to say I inherited some of her ability. I got her combat skills after all,” he said as he started ladling soup into the bowls. “Is there anything you can’t do?” Weiss asked. “Ballet, I stopped taking classes,” he said sarcastically.

                “So this is a family recipe you said, what’s your family like Matt?” Blake asked. Matt sighed and made himself a bowl. He pulled over one of the desk chairs and took off his jacket, hanging it of the back of the chair and sat down with his soup. “To tell you the truth I don’t really have much family. It’s just me and my mom,” he said. He took a spoon full of soup sampling his work, “Not bad.” “You don’t have a dad?” Weiss asked. “Let’s start at the beginning. My mother was a huntress. She had graduated Beacon at the top of her class and then went to work as a solo huntress. Needless to say she was great at it. She actually made quite a name for herself. Then she met him,” Matt said. “Who is him?” Blake asked. “That’s what adds insult to injury, she never got a name. A one night stand with a guy she met in a tavern and nine months later came me.” “You never told us this,” Ruby said. “You never asked. Anyway, when my mother found out she was pregnant she went into early retirement. She moved to Patch, opened the general store and diner, and raised me. Of course you can’t keep a good huntress chained down. When I got a little older and more independent, she started taking on missions again every once in a while,” Matt said. “So then what’s you mom like?” Blake asked.

                Matt chuckled a little and told them, “Think of the stereotypical loving mother fused with a drill sergeant. At home she is a loving mother who loves to cook while in the field or while training she will work you till your nothing but blisters, and I say that from experience.” “I thought Qrow was your teacher,” Weiss said. “Qrow was my second teacher and taught me the combat style I use today. However, my mother was my first teacher. Man did that suck. She worked me into the ground all day and then comforted me, say my teacher was a jerk and too hard all night.” “Sounds rough, just the two of you,” Blake said. “It wasn’t that bad. Patch has a very close community and everyone helps everyone. I always had Ruby and Yang around so I never felt a want for siblings and in Patch just about everyone is considered family. When my mom would go out on a mission, Ruby and Yang’s family would watch me. That’s actually how I met Qrow and got interested in the scythe.”

                “You know now that I think about it, anytime your mom ever showed up with free food, she usually had an ulterior motive,” Ruby said in a tone of suspicion. “Nothing’s free, that’s what she always said,” Mat said as he pulled out a file folder giving it to the girls. “What’s this?” Blake asked curiously. “Our new assignment. After your work investigating the White Fang Ozpin has decided to give you another test of your investigative skills,” he said. “I’m surprised Ozpin would be willing to give us an assignment like this after our screw up with those renegades,” Yang said. “Yeah, Ozpin doesn’t exactly know about that. Trust me, my punishments were cutting you a break. If I told Ozpin, Glynda would suspend you in a heartbeat,” he said. “Matt, you lied to Ozpin?” Ruby said in disbelief. “No, there is a difference between lying and just not telling,” Matt said.

                “So what exactly is this case?” Blake asked as she opened the file. “Arson case, someone’s been burning buildings across Vale and the cops are stumped. They came to Ozpin hoping for a new set of eyes,” he explained. “Blake looked over the file. “Says here that there was no sign of forced entry but the buildings burned from the inside out. How is that even possible?” Blake asked. “That’s the million lien question. I’ll let you girls mull it over tonight. Come to my office tomorrow and we’ll work on it,” Matt said as he stood up, slinging his jacket over his shoulder. “Enjoy, jut bring the cart tomorrow,” he said gesturing to the cart and soup and then left.

                The next morning the girls knocked on Matt’s office door and walked in. hey found him at a weapons rack, putting his weapons in their appropriate places on his body. “Going somewhere?” Yang asked. “Yes we are,” He said as he pressed a button on the rack and it rotated into a bookcase. “Another building burned last night. We’re going to go sift through what’s left,” he said as he herded them out. After a quick stop to pick up the girls’ weapons and a short Bullhead ride into town, they were on the scene. They were standing in the middle of what was left of a factory. The fire had caused the roof to collapse in on itself. “This place is a mess,” Weiss said as she fruitlessly tried to fan away airborne ash from her face. “What exactly did they make here anyway?” Yang asked. “High energy dust batteries,” Matt said as he examined the area. “Something’s is… different. All the other buildings showed evidence of burning everywhere at once, but this one seems to have started on the ceiling,” he said.

                “I found something!” Ruby yelled to the others. She dashed over and held up device. It looked like a sphere with several small nozzles pointing in all directions. However, some of the nozzles were bent. “Let me see that,” Matt said and Ruby handed it to him. As she did, a small fire dust crystal fell out. Blake caught it with her cat reflexes saying, “That could have been bad.” She looked at the crystal closer. It had an odd urchin like shape and its color was a darker red. “Never seen dust like this,” she said. Weiss took a closer look. Being a Schnee, she had a pretty good understanding of the mysterious resource. “It’s definitely fire dust, but I’ve never heard of a dust crystal of this shape or color,” she told them. “Ruby, where did you find this?” Matt asked holding up the device. “Over by that smoke stack,” she said pointing the crumbling remains of half a smokestack. “Hm, alright keep looking. There’s got to be something else here,” he told them and they went back to searching.

                After about three hours, they gave up and returned to Beacon, bringing the strange device and dust they found with them. They returned to Matt’s office and went over what they knew. “Alright so what have we learned?” Matt asked as he hung his jacket and sat in his desk chair. “Well we think we have learned how he burns the buildings. He somehow gets a device into the building which starts the fire,” Ruby said. “That’s great but now we have more questions,” Matt said as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk. “How does the device work? Why did this building burn differently? What is with that strange dust crystal? How did this person get the device into the building? And Why these buildings?” Matt scratched his head. “Alright we’re going to split up to work faster. Yang, take the device down to Narco. Work with him and see if you can figure out how it functions. Weiss, take the dust crystal down to Becky Oobleck’s lab and see what you can find out about the crystal. Blake, go down to the company that owned the factory. Go through their employment records and see if they got any new employees recently and cross reference them with records from the other burned buildings. Be sure to compare faces too, this guy may use different names. This may have been an inside job.” What about me?” Ruby asked. Matt threw her a file. “That’s the list of buildings that have been burned down, what was in them, and who owned the. See if you can find a connection between them. If we can figure out that, we may be able to predict the next target,” Matt said. The girls all nodded and left.

                The girls all spent the next several hours working on their assignments and reconvened that evening in Matt’s office. “Alright, what have we got?” Matt asked sitting behind his desk. Yang went first, “Well, from what Narco and I found in the device, it was designed to fire out high temperature flames in all directions out of each of the nozzles on it. I think it contains the initial blast building up pressure and then release it so it reaches far away points. However, since some of the nozzles were damaged the fire didn’t spread evenly and the roof collapsed in on itself extinguishing the fire before it could completely destroy the building,” Yang explained. “Alright, Weiss what about the dust?” he asked. “Well, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. From what I can tell, it’s highly concentrated, and specially formulated to produce a powerful long lasting flame,” Weiss answered. “Hm, combine that with the device that sounds pretty potent. Alright, now we need to know how it got in the building. Blake did you find anything?” Matt asked. She sighed, “No, none of the companies got any new employees in weeks.” “Well that still tells us something. Now we now the device got in from the outside somehow. What about you Ruby?” he asked. “I got nothing either. One company made batteries, another made weapons, one was a dust refinery, and one was just a small time dust shop. They have no companies in common, no shared suppliers or clients, nothing I could see,” she answered. “High powered batteries, weapons, dust refinery, dust shop, Ruby you need those sterling eyes of yours checked. They do have something in common. They all use dust as a major part of their products,” he said.

                Suddenly he stopped and rubbed his chin in thought. “What is it?” Ruby asked him. Matt went to a pile of files in the corner, thumbed his way through it, and pulled out a file. “I thought it sounded familiar,” he said. “What that?” Ruby asked. “When Ozpin asked me to look into this with you, I pulled the records on every unsolved arson case for the past 30 years,” he said as he sat down at his desk and started reading the file. “This is a twenty three year old cold case I came across while going through the files, utilizes a custom dispersal device powered by a unique dust formula. Oh well that explains it.” “Explains what?” Weiss asked. “It says here this guy would drop the device down a chimney or smokestack to get it inside of the building he’s burning. The cops nicknamed him the Chimney Sweep. Looks like he hasn’t struck in twenty three years,” he said as he set the file down.

                Suddenly there was a knock on the door. “It’s open,” Matt called out. Ozpin walked in. “Any new developments?” he asked. Matt held up the Chimney Sweep file saying, “Well we think we got a suspect, twenty three year old cold case called the Chimney Sweep. Unfortunately, there’s not much in this thing.” “Hm, the Chimney Sweep. Ah yes I remember that case. He burned down the Beacon Academy dust lab during his last run,” Ozpin said. “Yeah well no one seems to know much about him,” Matt said. “Well there is always the huntress that went after him,” Ozpin said. Matt sat up in his chair asking, “What huntress?”  “After this criminal burned down Beacon’s dust lab, I sent one of our best huntresses after him. Apparently she got close enough to actually fight him. However, he managed to escape and hasn’t been seen since. She might have some insight,” Ozpin suggested.

                “Well in that case,” Matt said. He reopened the file, but when he saw the name of the Huntress he slammed the file shut saying, “NO! Not her! She never stopped complaining about that case. It was her one failure in her eyes.” “Come now Matt, your acting as if I’m asking you to go out with a Beowolf,” Ozpin joked. Matt groaned, “Fine, I’ll call her.” Matt took out his scroll and dialed a number. After a few rings it answered. “Hello… Yeah it’s me… Yeah I know I haven’t called in a while… Look I need some information on a case you worked, the Chimney Sweep…” Suddenly there was a burst of yelling coming through the scroll. It was so loud, Matt actually had to move the device away before it deafened him. “Yeah, yeah, yeah I get it you hate that case but he’s back… Yeah same device and strange dust… No! You don’t have to come all the way here. You can just tell me now… Seriously, you hate this guy’s guts and you still want me to do that… Come on, Ozpin will just want to make you give a lecture… What… You already have a lesson plan… Fine, standard rules… Right, I’ll send a bullhead. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He hung up. “Ozpin I’m going to need a…” Ozpin interrupted him, “I’ll take care of it.” The headmaster said as he left. Matt leaned back in his chair, covered his face with his hands, and groaned. “What’s wrong Matt?” Ruby asked. “I don’t want to talk about it,” was all he could say.

                The next day Matt and the girls spent the morning poring over the file on the Chimney Sweep until Ozpin came in. “Matt our guest will be here soon,” he said. Matt groaned. “Right,” he said as he got up from his seat and pulled on his jacket. He walked over to a bookcase and pulled a book back. The case rotated around to his weapons rack. However, instead of going for his sword, guns, or talons; he grabbed a metal briefcase sitting on the bottom of the rack. He took the case and rotated the bookcase back as he turned to the girls. “Well let’s get this over with,” he said and he walked out the door followed by the girls.

                Matt, Ozpin, and the girls walked out to the landing pad. A few minutes later a bullhead landed at the far end of the platform and a middle aged woman, about 45 years old stepped out. She had blonde hair shoulder length blonde hair under a green military style beret with a wing shaped pin. She wore a black shirt under a green military style field jacket with the sleeves cut off. On the bottom she wore kaki cargo Capri pants and black combat boots. She wore two black holsters off of her black belt and a pair of aviator sunglasses. Her emblem of an owl’s head trailed by wind was on the low front side of her jacket. Over her chest was a wide belt holding a backpack and a pair of small shields on her shoulders.

                She stretched out as she spun on her heels taking everything in. “Ah Beacon Academy, my does this bring back memories,” she said as she face Matt across the platform. “Alright, shall we get down to business?” she called to Matt across the platform. Matt set down the briefcase and took off his jacket and harness, dropping them on the deck and cracked his knuckles. He knelt down and brought the briefcase in front of him. “Matt, what’s in the case?” Ruby asked. He released the clasps and opened the case to reveal a pair of revolvers. “The test,” he said as he took out the first pistol and examined it. “What test?” Weiss asked. “If we want to get her help we got to pass the test. A five minute round, duel revolver knives with a shotgun sword combination, six shots per gun, no reloads, and no semblance. I got to at least survive,” He said as he loaded the gun and began to repeat the process with the other. “So why did you lose the jacket and straps?” Yang asked. “They can be restrictive in combat. I’m going to need every ounce of speed and agility I got to beat her,” he answered. “But you’re the fastest fighter we know. You’re even faster than Ruby,” Blake said. “With my semblance yeah, but this match is without semblance. It’s a test of combat ability on equal grounds,” he said as he finished loading the second gun. He held the guns to his ears and spun the ammo drums. He waited a second and then stopped them. “Perfect,” he said to himself and holstered the guns.

                He closed the case and stood back up. He looked over his shoulder to the girls and said, “Now no matter what happens next, don’t interfere.” He stepped forward towards the unknown woman. The woman unbuckled the strap holding on her pack and her shields, dropped them on the deck and stepped forward as well. They both stopped, standing about fifty feet from each other. Simultaneously, they drew their guns, converting their left hand gun into a knife. They both held their gun out strait, pointed at each other with the butt of the pistol grip sitting on top of the opposite hand. Slowly they circled each other, starring intensely at each other. “Well you’re looking well,” she said making small talk. He indulged her, “As do you, how is everyone?” “Oh wonderful,” she answered. “What are they doing?” Ruby asked the others in a whisper. “They looking for an opening in the other,” Ozpin answered. “They both hoping to end this in one blow but they need a weak point to do so.” “Then why are they talking?” Weiss asked. “Distraction, they’re trying to throw the other off, giving them a chance to find the opening first,” he answered.

                “Well I suppose we should start,” the woman said. “Alright,” Matt agreed. Thy both looked down and then back up at each other, each taking a deep breath. Their eyes narrowed as they said simultaneously, “Let the journey begin!” They both fired a shot. The bullets came within millimeters of colliding and continued towards their targets. They both brought up their knives and used the blade to deflect the incoming bullet into the deck off to the side. They converted their remaining pistols to knives and charged each other. They slashed at each other, each time their blades colliding. Eventually, they each slashed at each other, hold their blades parallel to their own but perpendicular to the other’s. They both leaned in close, their faces inches from each other. “And here I was worried you would get rusty in a desk job,” she said. Matt forced her back, spun around for added force, and they locked blades again, again their faces close. “I do teach combat instruction. Half the time I’m kicking my students’ butts across the arena, not grading papers,” he retorted. She forced him back as she spun on her heel, giving Matt a roundhouse kick in the side. He was flung towards the side of the landing platform. He flipped back landing on his feet and skidded to a halt. He converted his knives to guns and fired three shots. Matt’s opponent dropped back as the bullets flew past her within an inch of her nose. She popped back up and fired two shots at him. He charged her, keeping low to stay under the bullets. He dropped sliding between her legs under and popping up behind her. He tried to take a couple of shots in her back, but she dropped to deliver a sweeping kick only to have Matt jump to dodge it and deliver four shots to her, sending him and his foe in opposite directions both of them managing to land on their feet.

                “Who exactly is this person?” Weiss asked. “I’m not sure. I can’t see her face,” Yang said. “Well she’s really giving Matt a run for his money. I can see why he seemed so worried about this,” Ruby said. “He seems to know her. I wonder how they know each other,” Blake said. “Maybe an ex-girlfriend,” Weiss guessed. “Or maybe a huntress he once met that he respects, maybe even a former teacher,” Blake suggested.

                By now a crowd of students had accumulated to watch the fight, team JNPR among them. “What’s going on?” Pyrrha asked. “Who is Matt fighting?” Jaune added. “We don’t know who he’s fighting and Matt has to pass this test so she’ll help us with something,” Ruby answered.

                Back with the fight, the two combatants connected their two guns together front to back, converting them into short shotguns. They swung them like bats. The bounced off each other as they spun around and fired. They both stumbled back from the shots and then each converted their shotgun into a sword. Matt slashed, she blocked it. He spun back around and slashed again, again she blocked. From there they entered a fierce storm of blades, slashing and blocking striking so fast that the girls couldn’t even see the blades anymore.

                “This is intense!” Nora said. “I know right. I can’t even see the swords anymore,” added Yang. “I can’t believe Matt said he was slow without his semblance. He’s been moving as fast as Ruby does with her semblance,” Weiss said. “Hey I just remembered, didn’t Matt say there was a time limit?” Yang asked. “Yeah, five minutes I think,” Blake answered. “Well how long has it been?” Yang asked. Blake checked her scroll, “4 minutes, 42 seconds.”

                Matt and his opponent both knew they were running out of time. Both of them jumped back. They both charged taking a final slash at each other, Matt slashed sideways while his opponent slashed vertically. They both skidded to a stop; Matt was holding his sword out to the side while his opponent had hers pointed to the ground. Time was up. No one moved no one even made a sound. The two combatants just stood there holding their positions. Then they both dropped to a knee. They both stabbed their swords into the deck for support as they struggled to keep their auras from breaking.

                Matt was breathing heavily through his nose. He was not going to lose to her. Then he snapped. His aura broke and he fell to the deck. The fight was over and the crowd dissipated. The girls walked up to Matt, bringing his things he left with them and looked down at him. Slowly, he managed to flip himself over. He snickered a bit, “Guess I failed the test.” “Don’t be so sure,” Yang said pointing towards his opponent. Matt propped himself up on his elbows and saw his opponent on the deck, her aura broken. “She snapped just as you did,” Yang said. Matt dropped back on the deck and laughed. “What’s so funny?” Ruby asked. “Usually she kicks my scythe across the battlefield. This is the first time we’ve tied,” Matt joked. “There’s someone that can actually beat you?!” Ruby asked in disbelief. “There are exactly 3 people in this world that can still beat me. One is Qrow and the other two are on this platform,” he said. “Wait if she’s one,” Ruby said as she pointed to his opponent, “then who is the other?” Matt pointed behind them. They turned to see Ozpin sipping his coffee. “Duh,” Yang said sarcastically.

                Matt flipped to his feet, taking his jacket from Yang and putting it on. He kicked the sword up with the back of his heel and caught it, converting back to pistols, and holstering them. He walked over to his downed opponent and knelt down on one knee next to her. She rolled over, resting her arm over her eyes. “So it was a tie?” she asked. “We never specified what to do in this situation did we?” he asked. She laughed a little, “Oh I’ll let you have it sparky,” she said endearingly. Matt jumped to his feet and held his hand out to her. She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. He tried to let go but she kept a tight grip. She tilted her head to the side and smiled. He sighed, “Fine.” They hugged each other. “Heh, it good to see you Matt,” she said as they embraced.

                “Ok, I’m getting on the ex-girlfriend idea train,” Blake said. “I don’t know. Something about her feels familiar,” Ruby said. The unknown woman did the same trick Matt had done with his sword and holstered the guns. The two of them walked over to the girls, laughing about who knows what. As they walked up she said, “Ah Ruby, Yang how are you girls doing?” “Yang I don’t recognize her. “She’s so familiar but I can’t place her,” Ruby whispered in her sister’s ear. “I’m starting to think the ex-girlfriend theory isn’t as good an idea as we thought,” Yang said. Matt gagged when he heard this. “You thought she was an ex-girlfriend?!” he asked in disbelief. “I mean she’s twice my age! Blake and Weiss I can understand but you two?!” “In their defense Matt, I did cut my hair a little and they aren’t used to seeing my combat gear,” the unknown woman said. “Then who is she?” Weiss demanded to know. “This,” Matt said gesturing to the woman, “is Chloe Vert, my mother.” Suddenly everything clicked in the girls’ minds. Yang and Ruby slapped their foreheads, unable to believe they couldn’t recognize a woman that has lived next door to them all their lives. “Patch just hasn’t been the same without you girls,” Chloe said, pulling her sunglasses down her nose so they could see her brown eyes.

                “I can’t believe you came all this way just to help us catch the Chimney Sweep,” Ruby said as they all walked over to the bullhead so Chloe could get her gear. “The Chimney Sweep was the only target that got away. I am going to get him this time. That’s why I didn’t come alone,” she said. A second later, Matt felt something land on his head. The girls looked at him funny. “Uh Matt, you have a…” Weiss said. “Arrow?” Matt asked whatever was on head. He held up his forearm and a great horned owl jumped off his head and onto his arm. The bird stood proud on Matt’s arm, sporting a pattern of white, gold, and dark brown, and wore a cross harness with a circular buckle on his chest. “Hey pal, it’s been a while,” Matt said. “A pet owl? You brought your pet to help?” Weiss asked, not convinced the bird could help. “He’s not the only one,” Chloe said pulling her jacket on and she whistled loudly.

                Matt’s eyes went wide. “You didn’t,” he said. Suddenly there was barking in the bullhead as Arrow flew over to Chloe’s shoulder. Matt turned to face the barking and three dogs jumped out, tackling him to the ground. Blake panicked thinking they were being attacked and jumped up onto the bullhead’s wing, out of the dogs’ reach. “Ah, oo, no, stop it, boys cut it out,” Matt said in vain as he rolled around on the deck, being licked by a beagle, a black and silver german shepherd, and a blue eyed Siberian husky. “Hey look its Ruby and Yang!” he said. The dogs stopped and turned to the sisters. “uh oh,” Ruby said and the dogs tackled the sisters, licking them. Blake shuddered, “more mutts.” “Hey, they’re not mutts. They’re pure breeds, every one of them,” Matt said as he wiped his face off on his sleeve. “Alright boy, front and center!” he called to the dogs. The dogs stopped and lined up in front of Matt. “Girls meet my dogs. The beagle is Dax, the shepherd is Sarge, and the husky is Frostbite.”

                “Well reunions are fun but why don’t we get down to business?” Chloe asked as she buckled her shields back on and grabbed a duffle bag. “Boys get your bags,” she told the dogs. The three jumped back into the bullhead and then back out wearing dog backpacks. “Those are some smart dogs,” Weiss said. “There still dogs,” Blake shuttered. “What’s with little Miss Bow?” Chloe asked pointing to the cowering Blake. “Cat faunus, ears are under the bow,” Matt said. “Aw,” Chloe said. “Blake get down here. Trust me, I’ve trained the urge to case cats out of them,” he said. Hesitantly, she jumped down.

                They walked to Matt’s office. As they passed team RWBY’s room, the three dogs started barking at the door. “What’s with them?” Chloe asked. “Tia sent Zwei to the girls,” he answered. “Ruby why don’t you let Zwei out?” he said. She opened the door and Zwei darted out. He circled the other dogs a barked a hello. Now with Zwei with them, the all went to Matt’s office. Matt took his seat behind his desk and Dax jumped up into his lap. Matt sighed as the dog got comfortable and said, “Oh Dax, you always were the spoiled little brother.” Zwei decided to jump into Ruby’s lap while Sarge and Frostbite went to Weiss and Yang. “What do they want?” Weiss asked. Frostbite rested his head in her lap and looked at her with his blue eyes. “Oh, these guys have mastered the art of the puppy dog eyes,” Yang said as she started scratching Sarge behind the ears. Weiss got the idea and did the same for Frostbite.

                Matt put his feet up on his desk and leaned back in his chair. “So Mom, why don’t you tell us about your investigation of the Chimney Sweep?” he asked. “Take your feet of the furniture,” she said. “When we’re under your roof you can make the rules, but this is _MY_ office. Now if you’d please?” he retorted. “Very well. It all started 23 years ago,” she began.

                “I was a young huntress, just graduated at the top of my class from Beacon. At this point the Chimney Sweep had already torched 7 buildings but it was still a police affair, or at least until that night. The Chimney Sweep burned Beacon’s on campus dust lab. After that, Ozpin couldn’t help but get involved. He called me and asked that I look into it. I started following leads, examining crime scenes, and making connections; many of which are in the file. Of course I could have worked faster. By the time I caught up with him, he had already torched 3 more buildings. After 2 weeks of tireless investigation, I found him. I had managed to figure out there was only one more target that met his criteria left in Vale, a factory that made dust infused rounds. I sat on the place for 3 nights before he finally showed. I attacked him on the roof, just as he had dropped a device down the smoke stack. We fought a fierce battle that smoke stack as the fire in the building raged out of control. Then just as I got the upper hand, he dove down the smokestack, into the inferno.”

                “Wait, so he’s dead?” Blake asked. “Well that’s the thing. When the fire burned out, the cops and I sifted through the remains for his body. However, we never found any evidence he died in the fire,” Chloe said. “Could the body have just been burned to ash?” sked Ruby. Matt shook his head. “Doubtful, even if the body had been destroyed by the fire, something would have remained. A zipper, metal jewelry, gold or ceramic fillings in his teeth, heck even his teeth themselves could have survived if the fire wasn’t hot enough,” he explained. Chloe continued, “Anyway after that night, the Chimney Sweep vanished. I kept investigating for a few weeks, but when my last lead didn’t pan out, I shelfed the case and moved on but... This case still bugs me. It’s the only job that I never finished and it haunts me. Especially after what he said.” She sat back and started petting Arrow. “They were not chosen. Only those who are blessed by her, may use her blood.”

                That phrase triggered something in making him sit up. “What is it?” Chloe asked. Matt set Dax down, got up, and walked over to his bookshelf. He ran his finger across the books until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a book and thumbed through it. “What book is that?” Blake asked. “It’s an encyclopedia of the various religions in Remnant,” he answered. “You don’t look like the kind of person that would read a book like that,” she said. “It was a gift from Kirk. Here it is,” He said setting the book down on the coffee table, opened to a certain page. ‘It sounds like he subscribes to this religion,” he said tapping the page. “This religion says that dust is the blood of their god and that only their priests can use it.” “Alright we have a motive. Now how many people believe this religion?” Weiss asked. Matt looked at the book. “Well this book was published 10 years ago and says that only about 10,000 left at the time. By now I doubt there are too many left. I can ask Ash to see what she can dig up,” he said. “Why do we need her to do it?” Ruby asked. “Because the Chimney Sweep knows my mom and he could have been watching us when we were going over the crime scene. If he senses us getting close, he’ll go into hiding again, and considering how long he stayed quiet this time I don’t he’ll ever surface again,” Matt said.

                “I’ll give her a call and ask her to do a little digging,” Matt said as he took out his scroll. “So what do we do now?” Ruby asked. Chloe looked out the window to see the sun setting. Then Ruby’s stomach rumbled. “I think dinner would be in order,” Chloe said. After Matt made his call, they went down to the cafeteria. “Ah so you through this generation’s food fight,” Chloe said as they walked to the cafeteria. “This generation’s?” Ruby asked. “Every generation ends up throwing a huge food fight. Try looking through the old yearbooks in the library. You’ll find pictures of huge food fights every four years,” Chloe answered.

                They walked into the dining hall and Chloe gagged as soon as the smell of the food hit her nose. “What is that smell?!” she demanded to know. “I think the kitchen staff is on strike so team JNPR volunteered to run the kitchen today,” Yang said. Matt gave her a look, “You guys let numb tongue Lie Ren and scatter brain Nora in the kitchen?! Have you ever tried that guy’s cooking?! More importantly you thought it was a good idea to put scatter brain Nora in a room for of dangerous cooking implements?!” Matt suddenly changed to a deadpan tone saying, “Do you smell smoke?” They turned to see smoke rising out of the kitchen. Then they heard an explosion in the kitchen.  They ran into the kitchen to see Ren and Nora standing in front of a freshly exploded stove covered in soot while Jaune and Pyrrha stood off to the side, each with their heads in one of their hands. Chloe screamed in horror, dashing from one kitchen disaster to another, screaming again at each new one. “What the dust happened?!” Matt demanded to know. “Nora thought fire dust would give Ren’s garlic and Brussel sprout chili some kick,” Jaune said. “So she decided to pour half pound of powdered dust in the pot,” Pyrrha finished. Chloe was on the brink of tears, “How could you do this?” she said. “What’s with her?” Weiss asked leaning over to Matt’s ear. “My mom spent a lot of her free time in here. That’s how she built up her amazing cooking skills,” Matt answered as he looked to his mother, who was now curled up in a ball on the floor.

                Then she popped to her feet and took a deep breathe. “Alright, everybody out. Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!” she said as she herded them all out of the kitchen. “What is she doing?” Blake asked. “She’s going to attempt to salvage the kitchen and make something that is actually _edible_ ,” he said emphasizing the last word as he eyed Ren. Jaune was gawking and asked, “Dang who’s the fox?” Matt smacked him over the head and Jaune cringed in pain. “What was that for?” he asked. “Lay off playboy. If you don’t want to meet the business end of one of my blades or lightning bolts, STAY AWAY,” the teacher said. “Matt, I need you and that barbequing friend of yours Narco if he’s around!” Chloe yelled from inside the kitchen. “Just stick around. Trust me, you won’t regret it. Oh, and someone run over to the hanger. Tell Narco to wash off the grease and get over here,” Matt said and handed them a deck of cards. “That should keep you guys busy for a while,” he said and bolted into the kitchen.

                The 8 students sat down at one of the tables and did what they could to pass the time. Nora and Jaune played with the dogs, Blake was reading one of her books, and the others played cards. As they passed the time, they could hear all sorts of strange sounds coming out of the kitchen. Sounds of electricity from Matt bolting around, pots and pans clanging, and what they think was several fire dust detonations. An hour later the diner crowd began to accumulate. Then Chloe opened the serving line.

                Needless to say, the students found Chloe’s food amazing. As the team RWBY ate, Matt and Chloe joined them. “So what do you think?” Chloe asked. The girls were dazed in a state of bliss. “That good huh,” she said. “It appears so,” they heard from behind them. They turned to see Ozpin. “Always good to see you Ozpin. Come to try my cooking?” Chloe asked. “Well that and I was hoping you would give a lecture tomorrow while you’re here,” Ozpin said. “I was actually planning to come talk to you about that after this. I actually have a lesson plan ready,” she said. “On what topic?” he asked. “Combat coordination,” she said. “Interesting. Well you can take Matt’s class slot tomorrow. I’m sure he won’t mind,” Ozpin said as he looked to Matt, who was half asleep trying to digest his meal.

                The next afternoon, students trickled into the combat training amphitheater. They stood around chatting, waiting for Matt to make his usual showy entrance. “So what kind of teacher do you think Chloe will be?” Ruby asked. “Well Mat always said she was a drill sergeant when it came to training,” Yang said. Suddenly the doors flew open as Matt bolted in followed by Chloe, who calmly walked in. “Ah, always good to see your passion for your work,” she told him. Needless to say, the presence of a woman who had fought with Matt the day before was now standing before them. “Hey teach, who’s the broad?” Cardin asked. Matt was about to throw a knife near his head, but Chloe moved first. She drew one of her pistols and fired an ice dust round directly at Cardin, freezing him up to his neck. She sauntered over to the frozen student converting the gun to its knife form. She placed the edge under his chin and playfully said, “I’m going to make this clear. Insult me or refer to me in such a demining tone again, and I will drop you faster than lightning.” As she walked back to the front of the class, Matt walked over to Cardin. He drew his sword Storm Reaper and made a single slash. He returned the sword to his back and the ice imprisoning Cardin shattered. “She’s as bad as you,” Cardin said to Matt. Matt smacked him over the head and said, “Where do you think I get it from?”

                He walked back to the front of the class and tried to get their attention so he could start the class. When that failed to work he and his mother looked at each other as if they had communicated psychically. Then they looked back to the class, each drew one of their guns and fired a shot into the air. The students all jumped at the sound. “That’s better,” Chloe said. “Who needs nails on a chalkboard?” Matt joked. Now that they had the students’ attention, Matt began the class. “Alright then class, today we will be having a guest lecturer today.” He gestured to Chloe, “This is Chloe Vert, professional huntress and she will be teaching you about combat coordination.” “I’ll just settle this now; show her the respect she deserves. Anyone who thinks otherwise, gets iced.” The students were stunned.

                Matt pulled out a large chalkboard for Chloe and she began her lecture. “So, what is a team’s greatest resource?” she asked the class. “Strength,” Nora called out. “No,” Chloe said. “The number of gun barrels,” Coco tried. “I’ll assume that’s a joke,” Chloe said. She sighed, “Sparky, can you please?” Matt’s head popped up above the chalk board. “Don’t call me that in front of the students,” he said in an annoyed tone. Jaune leaned over to Ruby and whispered, “What’s with the banter? They argue like me and my sisters. Wait, does Matt have a sister?” “No he doesn’t, but yeah they are related,” Ruby answered. Matt unlocked the board and it flipped over, carrying him over with it, and he flipped down to his feet with it. Written on the board was the answer. He tapped the board saying, “teamwork.” “Thank you. Yes teamwork is the most important think you need. If you can’t work together you will never succeed. Why don’t we see some examples of team work,” Chloe said. On que, Matt bolted circles around the room and within seconds, a project and screen were set up.

                The lights dimmed and the projector started. The first seen was of team MRLN during their days as students. They functioned flawlessly, attacking in sequence, dodging, and blocking attacks on their team mates. “That is what it’s supposed to look like. You work together and cover each other’s flanks,” Chloe said. The video changed to teams RWBY and JNPR’s fight with the giant nevermore during the initiation. “What fascinates me about this example is that the next one happened an hour earlier,” she said as Matt changed the scene to Ruby and Weiss running into each other during the initiation. Ruby and Weiss sunk into their seats. Matt just snickered as he leaned on the projector. Next was a recording of team CRDL’s first fight against Matt. “This is a prime example of what not to do,” Chloe said. “Yeah, I already gave this lesson during my first class,” Matt said. Chloe brushed off his interruption and continued. Matt changed to the next video and his eyes went wide. “Now this is a perfect example of bad team work,” Chloe said smugly. It was a recording of team MRLN in their early days as students. They were running into each other, tripping over themselves, and even accidently striking each other by accident.

                There was the sound of a sword slash and the projector stopped. The students turned their heads to see Matt holding his sword and two halves of the projector sparking. He guiltily tried to hide his sword behind his back in an ineffective manner and said in a sarcastic voice, “Oh no, someone cut the projector in half.” One thing about Chloe is that she could have one heck of a short fuse at times. “Dang it Matt, that tears it!” She yelled as her blocky shield gauntlets slid down her arms and onto her hands and jumped over the students at Matt.

                Just as she was about to punch with one of the shields, she pulled the trigger and the pile bunker in the end launched out for added impact force. Matt just managed to bring his sword around and block the strike along the side of the blade and divert it into the ground. Matt bolted back a ways and then back at Chloe, swinging down on her. She held up her other hand and an energy field radiated out from the palm of her hand. As soon as Matt’s sword hit the field, it stopped. Matt tried to pull the sword back, but it was stuck as if it was turned to stone. Chloe swung back around and punched Matt in the gut using the pile bunk for extra force. Matt went flying back leaving his sword still floating where Chloe had stopped it for a second and then dropped, stabbing into the ground. Matt slammed into the wall and fell to the ground. He flipped to his feet and let loose his talons. The blades opened to reveal their guns and opened fire. Chloe’s gauntlets opened on the forearms to become shields. She began moving them with lightning speed blocking every shot.

                She collapsed the shields and banged her knuckles together tauntingly, wearing one of Matt’s trademarked cocky smirks. “We may have tied when we were on equal ground, but with my semblance I got the upper hand,” Chloe boasted. She slammed her knuckles together and the gauntlets locked together. The right one unlocked from her wrist and the two slid a ways down her left wrist and became a large shield. She then threw up her left pistol and drew her other one. The first pistol came down and it landed perfectly on the other, becoming a shotgun and then converted to a sword.

                Matt dusted himself off and held out his hand. A glyph formed and a tether of lightning jumped out and latched onto his sword. He pulled back and the sword flew at him spinning. He held his hand out to the side, as if he wanted it to cut his arm off. The handle spun perfectly into his hand and he used the momentum to spin back on his heels, sweeping his leg around low, and converted it to its scythe form. As he rested it on his shoulder a large glyph formed behind him as he said, “You may be my mother, but you’re not going to win!”

                The members team JNPR looked down towards the members of team RWBY after hearing what Matt said and all said, “Mother?!” “Yeah, Matt’s mom is great isn’t she?” Yang said. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t count Matt out,” Ruby said.

                “Please, with my semblance I can stop and swing of that oversized monstrosity of a weapon,” Chloe bragged. Matt swung his scythe back and took a stance, preparing to charge. “You forget one thing,” he said. A glyph formed on his scythe and it charged with electricity. Another glyph formed behind him and lightning flew from his body. Chloe took a defensive stance and used her semblance to create a speed break field. Matt took a step and converted to lightning and then rematerialized several yards behind Chloe, landing as if he had just slashed with his scythe and Chloe flew into the wall in front of her. Matt had bolted around her speed break field and struck her in the back, and all in a millisecond. Chloe quickly came to her senses and jammed the back end of her shield against the wall. She fired her pile bunker and launched at Matt, firing shotgun shells at him as she went. He brought his talons into a spinning shield formation to block the shots and then sent them flying at her. She brought up her shield and blocked the talons but they kept driving into her shield. She dug her feet in as she fought against the force of the talons. She then used her semblance to stop them, only to find Matt behind her with a charged scythe. He fired off a burst of shots from his scythe to accelerate, sending him spinning, and he slashed. The scythe made contact and it was over.

                “I may have gotten my skill from you but, I must have gotten my power from my old man. Whoever, the dead beat is,” Matt said as he rested his scythe over his shoulders, hanging his arms of it. Matt looked up as the bell rang. “Alright, class dismissed. Practice you team maneuvers for next class. We’re going to be having a small tournament,” Matt said as he collapsed his scythe and put it back on his back. Chloe came to her senses and flipped to her feet. “It also appears you got my cockiness,” she said. “Well not all of it. I still don’t let it get the best of me,” he said.

                “Well those are some interesting weapons,” Blake said. “It was one heck of a fight,” a voice said behind them. They turned to see Ash disabling her semblance so they could see her. “Ah Ash, I take it you got something for us,” Matt said. “Yeah from what I can tell there is only one more logical target, the dust refinery on the south side,” she said. “Hum, sounds like this will be our last chance to catch him. Thanks Ash, I owe you one,” Matt said. “By my count you owe me 47. Now if you’d excuse me, I have a cheating husband to expose,” Ash said. “I thought you got out doing domestic spats,” he said. “Girl’s got to pay the bills,” Ash said and then vanished into the background. “So what now?” Yang asked. “We plan,” Matt said.

                They went to Matt’s office and he went through his maps, again accidently revealing evidence of pranks. He reached the map of the south side of Vale. He circled a building on the map. “Alright here is the refinery,” he said. Chloe marked six points and said, “These six points will allow us to be able to see this guy no matter which direction he comes from. He only strikes at night so pack coffee. We’re going to be up late.”

                They were just about to leave when Dax, Sarge, and Frostbite came in dragging several duffle bags with them. Dax dragged his bag right up to Matt’s feet and barked, wagging his tail. Matt smiled. “You guys want to come to don’t you?” he asked the dogs. “That’s cute but they’ll just slow us down,” Weiss said. The dogs looked to Weiss, they had been insulted. Dax used his semblance and dashed next to Weiss scaring her. She stumbled back and fell over something. When she looked though, there was nothing there. Then Sarge materialized, deactivating his semblance of invisibility. “What the…” Weiss began to say as she started stand up when her hand froze to the floor. She looked to see Frostbite making a quite howl and freezing air flying from his mouth. “Frosty!” Matt scolded the husky. They he just snickered, “This is why people never insult the capabilities of my boys.” Blake was scared out of her mind, her worst fears realized. She jumped up and cowered on top of a bookshelf, “The dogs are turning on us!” “Oh come down from there. There not turning on us, they’re just contradicting Weiss,” Matt said. The girls were confused. “You forget. They’re my dogs. They’re all combat trained. Hey Ma, help me get these guys geared up.”

                Matt and Chloe opened the duffle bags the dogs had pulled in and pulled out what looked like body armor and they started mounting it on the dogs. A few minutes later, the dogs stood proud in their full tactical attire. Dax had the least amount of armor as his was only a vest that covered his torso. He needed to be light for his speed. On his side was a small knife, place perfectly so he could draw it with his mouth. On the other side was a pistol with an extended clip on a small mechanical arm. The girls could see the gun’s movements tracked the movements of the beagle’s head. “How does a dog even fire a gun?” Weiss asked. Matt pointed to a strap wrapped around Dax’s tail, “That strap is the trigger. When he pulls his tail down, it fires.” Sarge’s gear was lightweight but still more elaborate than Dax’s. In addition to the armored vest, Sarge had Kevlar sleeves on his legs to protect his limbs and a wind screen over his eyes. Like Dax he had a combat knife but his was much bigger. On his back hips were two submachine guns with silencers and extended clips set up similar to Dax’s gun. Frostbite however, was the most armored. His body and limbs were covered like Sarge as did he have a windscreen on his face. However, he also had metal plating on top of the Kevlar in various places. For weapons he also had a large knife and small semi-automatic shotguns with extended clips. “Even worse. Armed dogs,” Blake said in a deadpan tone. “What do you do about ammo?” Yang asked. “Each of them have extended clips but when they run out, they need to find a person to reload for them,” Matt explained.

                The verts and the members of team RWBY spent the next two nights staking out the dust refinery and for those two night, nothing happened. On the third night, Matt was crouched on the corner of a building watching over the area, his hood up and his open jacket waving in the night wind. Sarge was sitting next to him, smelling and listening for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly they heard the loose asphalt on the old roof shift. Startled Matt spun around drawing one of his SMGs as Sarge aimed his. Luckily they realized it was just Ruby and Weiss before they pulled the trigger. Matt let out a relieved breathe and said, “Don’t sneak up on me like that in the field.” The two girls were so scared they actually hugged each other. Of course when they realized they weren’t going to get blasted, Weiss pushed Ruby off in slight disgust.

                “Matt we’ve been out here for three nights straight. I don’t think he’s coming,” Ruby complained. Matt took out a small notebook and started writing in it as he did, “Note to self, prepare lesson on patients in the field.” He put the book back in his jacket. “Girls trust me, you are going to be spending a lot of late nights on the job as huntresses. You’re going to have to learn to get sleep whenever you have the time. Tracking a target is often a waiting man’s or in your case woman’s game. You will have to spend long hours staking out where your target is known to go or tracking them for days, just waiting for the perfect time to strike,” Matt explained.

                Suddenly Sarge’s ears perked up and he growled softly to the west. “What is it boy?” Matt asked and then looked in the direction he was growling. There they saw an unfamiliar silhouette jumping across the roof tops. “And that is why patients pays off,” Matt said as he pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked through them. “Well?” Weiss asked. “Black clothes, covered in soot, that’s the guy,” Matt said. He tapped his earpiece so it would transmit and said, “Guy’s I think we got him. He’s approaching from the north along the roof tops.” “Got it,” Yang and Blake said, standing on a roof to the north. Chloe was on the edge of another roof top with Dax and Frostbite, “We’ll intercept him at the roof on the corner of 5th and 94th streets.”

                The Chimney Sweep landed on another rooftop. He was about 40 with black hair. He wore all black, button up shirt, vest, pants, dress shoes, a bowler hat hand a thick layer of soot across his body. He was about to take another step when a bullet hit the ground in front of him and he stopped. He looked to the source of the shot to see Ruby, her scythe smoking. Weiss jumped down behind him while Matt landed on the other side. Blake and Yang jumped down behind them and Chloe and the dogs closed the encirclement all with weapons drawn.

                “Well this is interesting. I haven’t had someone get this close since my last run,” The Chimney Sweep said in a British accent. “You’re not getting away this time Chimney Sweep,” Chloe said. He tilted his head in curiosity, “Do I know you love? You seem familiar.” “A little over twenty three years I’d say. The munition factory on the west side?” she said. “Ah yes, that brings back memories. You were that huntress that tried to nab me,” he retorted. “Yeah well you’re not getting away this time. I brought back up,” she said. “You mess with Mama Vert, you mess with her son and his students,” Matt added. The Chimney Sweep looked to Matt who had this sword in its gun mode, barrel pointed at the arsonist. The criminal laughed, “Ah ha ha ha, let me get this straight. After the one blemish was put on your record, you get a second chance and you call a bunch of kids to help? Oh that’s rich!” Matt took a shot at the Chimney Sweep’s feet. “I’ll warn you, I’m a full huntsman, a teacher at Beacon, and these are four of my best students,” Matt said. The criminal smiled and snickered, “well then it’s a good thing I didn’t come alone.”

                He snapped his fingers and fifteen soot covered criminals pounced on them. They all managed to dodge and regrouped across from the criminals. The Chimney Sweep’s new friends were of various ages, ranging from fifteen to twenty two and all covered in soot. They all had various weapons; swords, maces, guns, and daggers. “You’re not the only one with kids love,” The Chimney Sweep boasted. Matt quickly surveyed the situation and spoke, “Alright he’s going to try to get to the factory’s main smokestack, all we got to do is keep him away.” “So we keep them all away from the factory?” Weiss asked. “No he needs to be the one to do it. His sidekicks aren’t important. I’ll take him, you guys take care of the rest,” Chloe said.

                Matt and Ruby bolted and dashed forward with their semblances and slashed down two goons each. The Chimney Sweep drew a staff with a mace on the end and charged with several of his kids. Weiss, Blake, and Yang took the kids while Chloe dealt with the Chimney Sweep.

                Chloe took a punch with her one of gauntlets. The Chimney Sweep blocked it with his mace, spun around, and tried to smash her. She punched the mace to the side and took another punch, using the pile bunker. He ducked back and swung his mace into Chloe. She flew off towards the edge of the roof. She slid her shields back and drew her pistols, converting them to daggers. She stabbed them into the roof to stop herself before she slid off. She pulled herself back on to the roof to see the Chimney Sweep running towards the factory. She looked to the others. Matt pushed back the goon he was fighting. “Go! We got this!” Ruby yelled to them. They nodded and ran after the Chimney Sweep.

                Matt and Chloe reached the factory just in time to see the Chimney Sweep was climbing the smokestack. She jumped up and dug her daggers into the stack and started climbing after him while Matt bounce from glyph to glyph. They reached the top just in time to see him dropping one of his fire bombs down the smokestack with a smile on his face. Matt jumped forward trying to catch the device but it just slipped through his hand. The device banged and clanked against the side of the smokestack as it fell to the bottom. It stopped banging for a few seconds and they heard what sounded like dozens of flamethrowers and a quick column of fire flew out the top and the building began to burn. Now Chloe was ticked off. She shifted her weapons to her sword and shield combo and attack with her sword, slashing down at him. He blocked it and they began their fierce battle. As they fought Chloe unbuckled her pack and threw it to Matt. He opened it to see a bunch of the ice dust charges similar to the Chimney Sweeps fire bombs in design. “Ice charges, your friend Becky made them, they should subdue the blaze. Matt nodded and started bolting around the outside of the building, throwing ice charges in the broken windows.

                Back on top of the smokestack, Chloe and the Chimney Sweep were engaged in a fierce battle as the flames of the fire raged higher even with Matt’s efforts. He pointed to his mace towards her and a shotgun built into the end fired off at her. She held out her shield to block the shot and rushed him with her shield. He was knocked back and Chloe slashed him and again and again. She converted the sword to its shotgun form and got close to him. She jammed the muzzle in his gut and fired doing more damage. While the Chimney Sweep was reeling she holstered her guns and broke her shield back into gauntlets. She delivered several hard jabs and finished with a double pile bunker punch.

                When it was done the battered villain rolled over to find Chloe’s gun in his face. “Game set and match,” she said in confidence. “They were not blessed by the goddess. They shall not use her blood, as you have not been chosen to take me this day!” he said and he flicked his wrist and a smoke pellet flew from his sleeve and detonated. As the smoked cleared Chloe watched as the Chimney Sweep rolled into the smoke stack laughing. “No!” she yelled. She was about jump in after him when a hand grabbed her shoulder. She turned to see her son who said, “The fires to intense. He’s not worth it!” She shook him off and said, “I lost him once I’m not going to lose him!” He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, “Is it worth losing your life to close a case? Your all I got, I can’t lose you!” His eyes were sincere, and Chloe could never say no to him when he was like this. “Fine,” she said surrendering. They jumped off the smokestack and jumped down on several of Matt’s glyphs. They met up with team RWBY and the dogs who were piling up the goons they had knocked out and together they watch the building burn.

                By sun up the fire department had brought the blaze under control. Of course the cops had questions and Matt and Chloe had a long talk with them while the girls had all fallen asleep against a police car. “Well at least we can close this case. No one could have survived that fire,” the detective said. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” the fire chief said as he walked up. He took off his helmet and wiped away the sweat on his brow and continued, “We’ve searched the whole building and there’s no evidence of human remains in the ruins.” Chloe punched the car she was leaning on in anger, waking the four sleeping girls leaning on it. “What happened?!” Yang yelled startled. “The Chimney Sweep escaped! All this and he got away again!” Chloe griped. “So what do we do now?” Ruby asked. “Breakfast, Razor makes a mean steak and eggs and a Bloody Mary that’s to die for,” Matt answered.

                Twenty minutes later they were sitting in the Moon’s Den. Matt, Chloe, and the girls were eating at the bar while the dogs sat below them. “So what happens now?” Weiss asked. Well I’d say the Chimney Sweep will go back underground for at least another twenty years and by the time that goes by, he’ll be an old man,” Matt said. “And that blemish will be on my record for the rest of my life,” Chloe added. “Hey at least you have you life,” Matt said. He pulled her close and added, “And more importantly, I still got a mother.” Chloe chuckled a bit and pulled Matt even closer, “Good point.” “Ok, to close,” Matt said and she let him go. The girls and Razor laughed. “I got to say, you and your mother are a lot alike,” Razor said as he set three bowls of food in front of the three dogs and they began to eat. “So Ma, what are you going to do now?” Matt asked his mother. “Back to Patch and the store, try to put all of this behind me. Maybe I’ll take a few jobs. Some success usually betters my mood,” she said. “Well its been great seeing you again Ma, and the dogs too,” Matt said. “Yeah, I’m going to miss having those three around,” Yang added. “I’m not,” Blake said with a shudder. “What are you talking about?” Chloe said nonchalantly. Matt stopped chewing. “What’s that mean?” he asked with a mouth full of food. “Chew your food son,” Chloe nagged. He swallowed and repeated the question. “I love those three really I do, but I’m getting tired of taking care of them. I have a business to run,” Chloe said. “So they’re staying?” Weiss asked in gleeful anticipation. “Yep,” Chloe answered. Weiss squealed in happiness as she jumped off her stool and hugged the dogs. “Oh brother,” Matt said as he rested his head in his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on Chloe Vert go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Chloe-Vert-654558119


	10. Release the Kraken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When an innocent fishing trip is disrupted by one of the largest documented Grimm in Remnant. Ruby and the girls have to help team MRLN deal with it along with a team of huntsmen and huntresses that have been hunting this beast with a vengence for years.

                It was a beautiful Saturday in Vale and everyone both students and teachers were making the most of the weather. The members of team RWBY were all sitting back and relaxing in a tree in the school courtyard, Weiss with Zwei in her lap. Weiss sighed, “I get why Matt and his team like to hang around in trees. This actually is quite comfortable.” “I told you we should have trademarked the tree thing,” they heard below them. They looked down to see Matt and Narco each with several fishing poles, a pile of equipment, and Narco was wearing a floppy hat full of lures. “What are you two wackos up to?” Blake asked. “We’re going fishing, Narco knows a great spot nearby. “Care to join us? The catfish should be migrating through the area,” Matt offered. “I’m in,” Ruby said. “Me too, we haven’t gone fishing in years,” Yang added as the two jumped down. “Well that’s two more. What about you two?” Narco asked Weiss and Blake. “Hanging out by the side of a muddy river no thanks,” Weiss said. “Blake, you like fish?” Matt asked. “Fish yes, water no. I’ll pass,” she answered. “Your loss, come on guys lets go,” Matt said and the four of them left.

                After a quick ride in Narco’s pickup, they arrived at their favorite fishing spot in the just on the edge of Vale River delta where it emptied into open ocean. Narco breathed deeply through his nose, “Ah, the Vale River delta. The only place you can catch both fresh and salt water fish in the same place.” Soon they cast their lines and they were fishing. The girls were sitting on a couple of logs holding their rods while Matt and Narco were taking the lazy man’s way. They had brought five rods each and cast them all at once. They mounted Y shaped sticks in the ground to rest the rods in and tied bells to the end of each rod. “What are you guys doing?” Yang asked. “Narco’s method for more efficient fishing,” Matt said as they finished. They plopped down in their folding chairs and relaxed. Matt reached into the cooler they brought next to him, grabbed some sodas and threw one to everyone. Simultaneously Matt and Narco cracked their sodas open, knocked them together, chugged down half the cans, and burped loudly. “Nice,” Ruby said in disgust and then she and Yang did the exact same thing, burping even louder than the boys did. “You sure you’re not related?” Narco asked Matt jokingly.

                After a few hours, the four of them had caught a school of catfish. “Soowee, these pretties are gonna fry up great just like my mama makes,” Narco said looking at the dead fish in the caught fish cooler. Just then one of Matt’s rods shook and its bell rung. “Oh we got another victim,” Matt said as he picked up the rod. Then another of his rods began to ring. “What the? Narco you mind?” Narco grabbed the second rod and began fighting the fish. Then amazingly, the girls got bites and the remaining rods rung out. “You got to be kidding me!” Matt said. He snapped his fingers and a glyph in his hand fired out small bolts of lightning to sever the lines and keep the rods from being pulled into the water. The four of them fought their prey tooth and nail not wanting to lose them. “Dang, what kind of scallies are these? They must be 50 pounders at least!” Narco griped. “Feels like I’m trying to reel in a truck,” Yang added. “I just hope we all don’t end up reeling in old boots,” Ruby said. The four of them pulled hard and their lines snapped, dropping them on their butts. “Dang it!” Narco said. Bubbles started to rise in the point where their lines had been. Ruby cocked her head to the side and asked, “Matt, what’s that?” The rate of bubbles steadily increased and the others became more and more curious. “Run,” Matt said. “What?” Yang asked. “RUN!” he yelled just as the water’s surface broke and a huge shadow covered them.

                Back at Beacon, Weiss and Blake were outside Matt’s office with Ringo and Lulu. “Are you sure it’s in here?” Blake asked. “I’m serious. Matt has a copy of the new Spruce Willis movie that hits theaters next month,” Ringo said. “How would he even get it? My family can’t even buy early access to his films,” Weiss asked. “The set was attacked while they were filming and Matt saved the guy’s life. Spruce promised Matt an early copy of the film as a thank you,” Lulu said. Ringo unlocked the door and they walked in to his office. “So where is it?” Weiss asked. “That’s the million lien question. We got to find it,” Ringo said. They started going through the draws of his desk and cabinets but found nothing. “Hey doesn’t Matt have hidden compartments behind the bookshelves?” Blake asked. “Of course, start pulling out books,” Ringo said. The four of them started throwing books off the shelves one by one. Lulu pulled one out and Matt’s weapons rack rotated into view. “That’s not it,” she said. Weiss activated another switch and a rack full of tools for weapons maintenance. “Nope,” she said. Ringo found a fridge full of junk food. “So this is where he hides his junk,” she said. Finally Blake pulled out the last book left on the shelves and it slid out of place to reveal a safe. “Jackpot,” she said and the other three joined her. “So how do we get in?” Weiss asked. “If you’ll allow me,” Ringo said as she stepped up to the safe. “Let’s see his it should be a four digit code so, his birthday,” she said as she typed in his birthday and it made a negative tone. “Alright, his mother’s birthday.” The negative tone sounded again. “What about MRLN?” Blake asked. Ringo typed it in and it failed. “What could it be?” Weiss asked. “Well let’s think. What does Matt care the most about?” Blake said. They stopped and thought. Ringo smiled and typed in four numbers. The safe name a positive tone and the deadbolts retracted. “What was it?” Weiss asked. “7,6,4,6,” she said. “How is that significant?” Blake asked. “R,N,G,O; Ringo,” She answered. “Isn’t that sweet,” Lulu said. They looked in the safe and basked at the site of the DVD.

                Just then the door flew open and a soaked Matt stomped in, slamming the safe shut and walked through the other door into his apartment. Narco came in behind him dragging a cooler followed by Ruby and Yang, all of them soaked to the bone. Ringo and her group looked at each other and followed them into Matt’s apartment. It was a nicely furnished loft in modern décor with a black, white, silver and grey color scheme with silver fixtures and pale masonry work on some of the walls. It had a huge TV on the back wall, a pool table, a full kitchen, an island fireplace, and spiral staircase and a fire pole down from the loft where the bedroom was. The entire wall next to the TV as a huge picture window that illuminated the whole place with three large raised dog beds that held Matt’s three dogs, all sleeping peacefully in the warm sunlight. “So this is where Matt lives,” Blake said as they followed him in. “I always expected a huge mess but it’s nice,” Weiss added. “He has a fire pole?” Blake said questioning the pole’s presence. “Matt’s just a big kid at heart,” Lulu said.

                “Matt what happened to you guys?” Ringo asked. Matt grumbled as he walked past her and to the closet. He grabbed some blankets and threw them to the shivering Narco, Ruby, and Yang. “Narco what happened?” Lulu tried asking. Narco’s teeth were chattering as he muttered, “So big, so many tentacles.” Matt threw a few new logs in the island fireplace and pointed his hand to the wood. A glyph formed in his hand and a bolt of electricity fired out, igniting the logs and warmth radiated, attraction Narco, Ruby, and Yang to surround it. “Matt?!” Ringo said trying to get a response, and again he stomped pasted her and up the spiral staircase to his bedroom. She gave up trying to get anything out of him and joined the others around the fire. “What happened out there?” Weiss tried asking Ruby and Yang. “It was so big, 5 stories tall at least,” Ruby said. “And its eyes, the size of tractor tires,” Yang added. “You guys were attacked, by who?” Lulu asked. “Not who, what,” Matt said looking down from the loft. He had changed into dry clothes and slide down the fire pole to join them. “The kraken is here.”

                Just then there was a knock at the door. “It’s open Oz,” Matt said and Ozpin walked in followed by Glynda and Ironwood. “How did you know?” Glynda asked. “We get attack by one of the biggest Grimm in Remnant, I’d be worried if you didn’t show up,” Matt said. “What’s the Kraken?” Ruby asked. “One of the largest and most powerful Grimm ever scene. It’s been seen numerous times over the years and every time it takes lives,” Ironwood said. “Not this time,” Narco said. “And more importantly, we got away with the fish,” he said holding up the cooler full of fresh catfish. Blake drooled at the sight of the potential meal. “Your Ma’s old pan fried recipe?” Matt inquired. Narco nodded. “Start cooking.”

                “Is this really the time for dinner?” Glynda asked in disbelief. “Glynda we are wet, we are cold, we are hungry, and we almost got killed. Yes it’s the time for dinner,” Matt said sternly and she backed off. Narco went to the kitchen and started cooking and the sound of potential scraps drew the dogs out of their beds and into the kitchen.

                “Matt why don’t you go back to the beginning and tell us what happened?” Ozpin said. Matt pick up the fire poker and poked at the logs. “We accidently hooked it while we were fishing. The lines snapped but it was enough to alert it to our presence. When it surfaced, I told Narco to get the girls out while I distracted it,” Matt said. “What did you fight it with you bare hands?” Ironwood asked. Matt reached into his jacket and pulled out a revolver like the one he fought his mother with and set it on the coffee table. “I never leave campus without a weapon. I don’t care if we have rocket propelled lockers; they take time I tend to not have,” he said. Ironwood pick it up and examined the weapon. While doing so he accidently hit the transformation switch and it turned into a combat knife, nearly stabbing him. “Careful general, my mom gave me that. It’s no toy,” Matt said, not turning from the fire. “I can respect you taste in weapons but your telling me you fought off a 5 story Grimm with just this?” the general asked in disbelief. “I didn’t have to beat it, just keep it busy. Of course I had to spend a little bit longer distracting it,” Matt said. “ _Somebody_ , decided to save the fish and then the girls,” Matt said in a perturbed tone. “I knew you could hold out long enough. I mean come on I couldn’t just let these beauties go to waste,” Narco argued. “Anyway, Narco used his semblance and jumped into a shadow with the fish and then came back and pulled the girls through. I was the last one out of there,” Matt said finishing the story.  

                “I thought that really old Grimm don’t attack people. That’s what professor Oobleck told me,” Ruby said. “Doctor!” they heard Dr. Oobleck yell from who knows where. “Well that doesn’t apply to all Grimm of that age. The Kraken attacks randomly across Remnant, hitting ports and sea side towns. Unlike normal Grimm it causes negative emotion to feed on instead of being attracted by it like normal Grimm,” Glynda said. “So what do we do about it?” Ringo asked. “I suggest a preemptive strike. I have more than enough forces here with me to put an end to the beast,” Ironwood said. “As I recall, the Atlas military has tried hunting the creature numerous times before, each ending in failure,” Ozpin said as he repositioned his glasses on his nose. “Such a large force will simply scare the creature back into hiding.” “We need a specialist,” Matt said. “He’s right. We need someone who is an expert in this specific beast. Its habits, it’s patterns, and abilities,” Glynda said. “But who is that well versed in the habits of a single Grimm?” Ironwood asked. “Matt, do you still keep track of all the members of your graduating class?” Ozpin asked. “I see where you’re going. We need Pike,” Matt said.

                “Who is Pike?” asked the General. “Pike Nase a former student of Beacon. He’s been hunting that squid for years,” Matt said. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him general. He’s one of the many Atlas citizens that left to attend Beacon instead of being indoctrinated into the Atlas military,” Narco said sarcastically. The general was not amused. “Anyway, Pikes father was killed by the kraken right in front of him when he was a kid and he has been after it ever since,” Matt explained. “So then where is he?” Glynda asked. Matt pick up the TV remote and pressed a button. On the screen the Map of all the huntsman locations Matt monitored appeared. “What is this?” Ironwood asked. “I monitor the locations of all the huntsman and huntresses that were in my graduating class and then any that were my students,” Matt explained as he walked up to the screen. “Let’s see. Ah here it is, team MMNT (Minty),” he said as he tapped one of the markers on the screen. It expanded to show information cards on the four members of the team. “It looks like they’re about a day away from here, so how do we get them to come? They’re huntsman, they take the jobs they want,” Ironwood said. “General, just about everyone I know owes me a favor or two. However that won’t be necessary, you can yell kraken a thousand miles away from Pike and they’ll be there in less than a second,” Matt said. Matt turned off the TV. “Just leave it to me, my team, team MMNT, and maybe a team or two of students for added fire power,” Matt said as he picked up his scroll.

                “How exactly do you keep track of all these people?” Weiss asked. “Whenever a huntsman takes a job from a mission board, its registered with the RHA,” Matt began to explain. “The what?” Ruby asked. “The Remnant Huntsman Association is an organization that regulates work for huntsman and ensure they don’t abuse their power and abilities,” Glynda explained. “Anyway, anytime a mission is taken the relevant information is record. The location they were at when and where they took the mission, the location of the mission, what the job is, and when and where the job was finished. With that data the computer can extrapolate where they most likely are,” Matt said.

                Matt put in his earpiece in and dialed a number. He paced as he waited on an answer. “Hello?” he said answering. “Yeah Mary its Matt… Yeah I know it’s been a while, look I need you guys in Vale... Yeah I think Pike is really going to want to come… Yeah it’s here, attack me, Narco, and a couple of my students… Yeah I figured that would attract you guys… Yeah… Alright, see ya.” He hung up. “Ok, we got professional kraken hunters. They’ll be here tomorrow” Matt said. “Fish is done,” Narco said and Blake dashed to the food.

                The next day, Matt and his team along with team RWBY and Matt’s dogs in their full combat gear were scouting along the ocean looking for the kraken. Weiss stepped in mud and made a sound of disgust. “Remind me why we are out here looking for this thing if we have a specialist coming?” she asked. “It takes time for them to get here and every second counts,” Lulu said. “Why don’t we take a break, we’ve been at this for three hours,” Matt said. They sat on some rocks along the shore and rested. So who are these guys you called to help us again?” Blake asked. “Mary Soot, Mojave Ramlah, Pike Nase, and Iola Titiania; another colorful group from our days as students,” Matt said. “Well considering the other people we’ve met from your school days, they must be a real group of nuts,” Yang said. “You could say that. Mary was groomed to be a nanny like her parents,” Matt began. “I think my grandfather had a butler named Soot,” Weiss said. “Not surprising. Mary comes from a long line of butlers, maids, and nannies that have served some of the richest and influential families in Remnant,” Lulu said. Matt continued, “Mojave was raised in the back streets of east Vacuo as a thief. But like many others, Ozpin saw potential and when he finally got caught for stealing Ozpin gave him the option of becoming a huntsman.”

                “So what about this guy Pike the Kraken expert?” Blake asked. “Pike’s father was a fisherman in Atlas and as soon as he could pull in a net, he worked the boat. When he was about ten, the kraken attacked the boat and he was the only survivor. He vowed revenge but he couldn’t go to Atlas academy since that’s basically the same as joining the Atlas military. So he attended Beacon to learn the skills he would need to defeat it. Since then he has studied everything there is to know about it,” Matt said. “So what about Iola?” Ruby asked. “She’s a fairy,” Matt said. “huh?” the girls all said. “Well that’s what everyone joked. Iola is one of the few Faunus that isn’t based on mammal. Her faunus attribute is a set of butterfly wings,” Ringo said. “So what’s she like?” Ruby asked. “She was basically Ringo’s best friend. She was raised in a community that believes in communing with nature. She loves plants and animals,” Matt said. 

                There was a cracking sound in the bushes and Matt gripped his sword but nothing happened. He relaxed and said, “Come on let’s get moving. We still got a lot of shore to cover.” The others stood up and stretched. “Man this sucks,” Yang said as she through a rock she had been playing with into the trees. Suddenly there was a growling in the trees. Matt looked to the trees and said, “Oh dust.” A herd of Grimm jumped out of the woods. They were just about to draw their weapons when several shots rang out from the nearby bluff and struck down five of the Grimm.

                They looked to the cliff and saw a man with a long bolt-action rifle as he opened the bolt and allowed the next round into the chamber. He was an unshaven young man with blue grey hair under a dark navy blue captain’s hat. He wore a dark navy blue double breasted sailor’s jacket with silver buttons, blue pants, and black boots. Pike Nase the Huntsman of the kraken hunter. He jumped down the cliff and threw a water dust crystal below him. The crystal fractured and burst into several hundred gallons of water. A blue aura manifested in his hand and the water began to take a shape of a ramp. He landed on his feet and slid down the ramp. The water moved with him and he rode it along. His rifle converted becoming a harpoon spear and stabbed into an Ursa. He pulled the end out and spun around slashing a Beowolf behind him as another was about to slash him in the back with his claws.

                Suddenly some of the sand on the beach exploded upward. The sand accumulated and became a person with a scimitar who came down and slashed the head off the Beowolf that was about to strike Pike. He converted the weapon into and shotgun and blasted the creep behind the Beowolf he just slain. He had dark hair in a long ponytail wrapped in a red cloth sheath hanging over his shoulder and dark tanned complexion. He wore an open red vest with gold detail, baggy white pants held up by a red sash belt with several bottles hanging from it, and pointed red Persian shoes with gold detail. His hands were wrapped in white clothes, a white scarf hood, and his emblem of a Persian oil lamp on his shoulder. It was another member of team MMNT, Mojave Ramlah. Another Ursa came up behind him and tried to bite him. However when it tried to sink its teeth into Mojave, he turned into sand and the Grimm went right through him. The sand blew behind the beast and rematerialized into Mojave who them slashed the Ursa in half. After that he spun around, through a punch towards a distant Grimm, and a dense vortex of sand flew out and shredded the beast. He looked up to the sky and called out, “Girls incoming!” His legs turned into a swirling vortex of sand and he skated out of the way.

                They looked up to see two girls falling out of the sky. One of them popped open an umbrella and a cloud of black smoke formed in it slowing her decent while the other opened a set of butterfly wings and they both landed back to back. The girl umbrella’s umbrella was four black and four pink triangles and a bird’s head handle. She had dark pink hair in a bun under a short brim black boater hat with a pink band and flower on the side. She wore a black tail coat with a pink interior over a white shirt, black pants, and black calf length high heel boots. Mary Soot, the leader of team MMNT standing back to back with her right hand Iola Titania. Iola had red-violet hair with a hair pin on the side shaped like her emblem of a set of fairy wings. She wore a one piece purple and green dress and a red violet sash belt that matched her hair. She had a pair of stocking one green one purple, red violet shoes, and a set of bright purple butterfly wings. In her hand was a short spear.

                They sauntered in opposite directions towards various Grimm. Mary whipped her umbrella out to the side and a stiletto blade extended from the end when a King Taijitu flew out of the trees at her. Smoke flew from her sleeves and from under the tails of her jacket and formed a shield that the snake Grimm slammed into as if it was a brick wall. She then jumped through the smoke as if it was nothing and stabbed the snake. Another Ursa tried to pounce on her but she opened her umbrella, filling it with smoke, and she rose out of the way. She stopped and formed a stair case of smoke clouds that she ran down and stabbed another Ursa. She pushed off the Ursa and hooked the handle of her umbrella onto a Beowolf. The handle came off on a chain and she wrapped it around the beast. She then pulled hard and it flew towards her where she ran it through.

                From there she opened her umbrella to block the slash of another Beowolf, and then filled it with smoke to float away as Iola came and stabbed the beast with her spear. Iola fired the submachine gun in the head and it flew out of the Grimm. She spun around and slashed an Ursa behind her. She fired again and the spear flew back in her had so the dust crystal pommel struck a Beowolf behind her. She grabbed a handle in the head and spun it around, holding it as if the shaft was a sword blade. She flipped a switch the shaft went slack becoming a whip. She spread her wings and flapped up into the air. She swung the whip over her head and swung it at an Ursa. The dust crystal struck and not only was the Ursa electrocuted by the lightning dust crystal but bolts flew out in all directions, striking other Grimm. However she didn’t seem to have that much control over it as one of the lightning bolts flew towards Ruby. Luckily Matt stuck his hand in front of her and opened and absorption glyph to catch the lightning, absorbing it.

                After Iola’s whip strike, the last of the Grimm were dispatched. She landed with her teammates, folding her wings down so they looked like a cape, and the four of them approached Matt and the others. “Aw, causing trouble again Matt?” Mary asked jokingly. “Hey you’re the one’s showing off,” Matt said pointing at tem MMNT. Then he saw his hand, saw the electrical burns, and cringed grasping his hand from the sudden pain. “Matt what happened?’ Iola asked. “You did. When you send out that lightning burst, one of the bolts flew towards us and I had to absorb it. Unfortunately it looks like I couldn’t get the absorption glyph out fast enough,” Matt said.  “Oh I’m so sorry. Let me take care of that,” Iola said and took Matt’s burned hand. Her aura manifested in her hands as she activated her healing semblance and Matt’s burn healed in seconds. “Let’s go back to the schools, and we can brief you,” Matt said.

                They returned to Matt’s office and sat down as Matt sat in his desk. The dogs could smell guests and came barreling in. “Easy boys,” Matt said. “Iola was ecstatic to see the animals, squealing, “Oo doggies!” She knelt down and began petting them. “Are these your dogs Matt?” she asked. “Yeah, they were staying with my mother back home but she finally got fed up with them. SO when she was visiting on business a week ago, she brought them along without me knowing and dumped them on me before I could argue,” Matt said. Matt whistled, “Dax, here boy.” The Beagle’s ears perked up and he ran over and jumped in Matt’s lap as he put his feet up on his desk. Iola sat down with Sarge in front of her so she could continue petting him and Frostbite walked over to Weiss who he had personally taken a liking to.

                They all got comfortable and Matt told team MMNT about the kraken’s attack. “Eye, so the retched beast has returned. I still remember the day it took my father from me. It was a foggy morning in Atlas when…” Pike began to say. “Pike we don’t have time for your sea tales,” Matt said interrupting him as. Pike stopped and took out a wooden pipe and hung it in his mouth. “No smoking in my office sailor,” Matt said. Pike let the pipe droop in his mouth. Matt rubbed the bridge of his nose and said, “Look the Kraken struck in an area a ways north of here. If it continues along the coast, it will reach Vale in about a few days. We need to at least route this thing away before it hits a populated area.” “We need to destroy the beast,” Pike said. “That would be the best outcome. But remember, we don’t always get the best outcome,” Matt said. “Fish guts,” Pike cursed. “We kill the beast or die trying.” “Pike stop exaggerating,” Lulu said. 

                “Look we called you guys here because out of all the huntsmen and huntresses in Remnant, you have had the most contact with this thing in the past five years. So you should be the experts on it,” Matt said. Pike sighed, “You got a map?” Matt got up, ejecting Dax who found his way to Iola. Matt went over to his maps. “What kind of map do you want? General area, Remnant, Vale?” Matt asked. “Let’s start with Remnant,” Pike said as he joined Matt at the maps. Matt went through the maps and found the one of all of Remnant. Pike picked up a couple of pins and marked several points across Remnant. “Ok these are all the places the Kraken struck in the past decade,” he said. “They look random,” Ruby said. Pike pick up some thread and began using it to connect the pins into several paths. “These are the paths the Kraken took during its previous rampages. Notice how it always follows along the coast, striking towns along the way,” he said. Blake pointed to some of the pins that weren’t on a towns, “What about those?” “Those are sightings but not actual attacks. The kraken has been reported in small coves and short ways up tributaries at times,” Pike said. “We think its goes to these kinds of places to hide and regenerate. The kraken is believed to be able to regenerate damaged or lost tentacles and other damage,” Iola said. “Isn’t that right handsome?” she said as she rubbed Sarge and he shook his foot in bliss.

                “Hey wait a minute, Matt did you do any sort of damage to the kraken when you were fighting it?” Ruby asked. “I didn’t really take a full list of the damage but I think it’s at least missing a tentacle,” Matt said. “Why?” “Well if it’s hurt, wouldn’t it go hide to regenerate?” she asked. “I like where you’re going with this lass. If we can find out where the kraken goes to hide, we can set a trap,” Pike said. “Matt do you have a map of the north shore of the peninsula?” Pike asked. “Matt went through his maps and found the one of the peninsula in which the city of Vale was situated in and the area around it. “Ok the kraken attacked us here,” Matt said marking the spot on the map. “So assuming it continues along the shore towards Vale, that leaves anywhere between there and the city,” Matt said stepping back. “That doesn’t really help though. There are dozens of river outlets and coves between there and the city. How are we supposed to tell where it’s going to hide out?” Weiss argued. “Maybe but the Kraken is ten stories tall, it won’t fit just anywhere,” Matt said. “He’s right. So if we take size into consideration that leaves…” Pike said as he examined the map and then tapped a spot on it, “one place, Shoal Cove.” “Shoal Cove, high cliffs and narrow opening to the sea, sounds like one heck of a trap just waiting to be sprung,” Matt said.

                “Alright, let’s go tell Ozpin the plan,” Mojave said. They started to leave when Matt said, “Wait.” They stopped and Matt held his hand out to Mojave. “Wallet.” Mojave reached into his back pocket, pulled out Matt’s wallet, and gave it to him. “And the others,” Matt said. “Dang your good,” said desert rat and handed him a pile of wallets. Ruby and the girls were shocked to see the stack. “Ok let’s see Lulu, Weiss, Blake, Narco, Mary, Pike, Yang, Iola, Ruby, and Ringo,” he said as he handed out the wallets. “How did he get our wallets?!” Weiss demanded to know. “The same way he got Narco’s goggles, Lulu’s side arm, every hat in the room, and my watch,” he said as he turned back to Mojave and gave him the evil eye. They all looked to Mojave who had Matt’s watch on, Narco’s goggles, a stack of Mary, Pike, and Lulu’s hats, and was wiping down Lulu’s revolver. “Mojave!” teams MRLN and MMNT yelled and they tackled the pickpocket.

                It was a cold foggy night and teams MMNT, MRLN, and RWBY were scattered around the Shoal Cove. Pike was standing on one of the higher cliffs with Matt, his lit pipe hanging from his mouth. “So you think it will work?” Pike asked Matt. “Its full proof sailor,” he answered. Their earpieces crackled and Ruby came over them, “Hey Matt, remind me what the plan is again.” The members of team RWBY were scattered about the rocks, lying in wait. “It’s simple,” Matt said as he looked to the cliffs around the cove’s narrow opening where Ringo, Mary, Iola, and Mojave were. Ringo was using her plants to climb the cliff side while Mary used her semblance and umbrella to float about. Mojave was floating on a cloud of sand and Iola flew with her wings. Together the four of them were planting dust explosives in the cliff faces. “We’re planting explosives in the cliffs near the entrance to the cove. After the kraken enters, we’ll detonate them and the cove will be closed off from the ocean trapping the thing. Then we kill it,” Matt explained. “Yeah simple,” Weiss said sarcastically. “An entire Atlas military strike force couldn’t stop this thing. There’s only twelve of us.” “Twelve huntsman and huntresses,” Matt argued. “Eight huntsman and huntresses and four students,” Blake corrected. “Look we are in a cove full of water that Pike has control over which doubles as a potential ice trap for Weiss to make and a perfect amplifier for my lightning,” Matt said. “I still don’t like it,” Mojave said over the com. “At least someone agrees with the students,” Weiss said. “I would have preferred a more sandy area. This cove is nothing but rock. I need preexisting sand for my semblance, the more the better,” Mojave said. “Wait so your semblance is useless out here?” Weiss asked. “Not quite. I carry a supply of sand with me everywhere so I have some to work with, but it’s limited. Although aside from that, I’m probably more worried about the water jet,” he said. “Water jet?” Ruby asked. “The kraken is basically a huge squid and squids propel themselves through the water using a mechanism in their bodies similar to a jet ski,” Matt said. “The thing about this squid is its capable of using that jet in both directions,” Pike finished. “So it’s got a big squirt gun. So what?” Yang said. “More like a high pressure water cannon that strikes at up to ten thousand psi,” Lulu said from her spot on another cliff, loading an ammo belt shell by shell. “Exactly, I’m worried that it may be able to blast its way out of here with that thing,” Mojave said. “Let’s just wait and hope it doesn’t come to that,” Mary said. “I still don’t like this. A ten story Grimm would usually need the fire power of at least a whole battleship to take down. How are we going to make a dent in it?” Weiss argued. “The Kraken is believed to have one weakness,” Pike informed her. “It does?” Ruby asked. “It’s a theory,” Iola clarified. “Whenever someone fought the Kraken they noticed it always seemed to protect a crystal in its head so people think it’s a weak point of some kind.” “Again let’s hope. Anyway charges are in place,” Mary said. “Right, everybody get to their positions,” Matt said and turned off the microphone. “Now we wait,” he said to Pike.

                They sat around for hours waiting for the kraken. As time went on everyone began to get comfortable and letting their guard down, everyone but Pike. Pike stood vigilant over the cliffs waiting for the beast that took his father. “Matt Can we call this quits already?” Narco asked over the com as he was whittled a stick. “Yeah I think we got this wrong. We better head back. Maybe Ironwood can set up a blockade as a last resort,” Matt said as he looked to the sky from the tree he was sitting against. “Hold that thought mate. Look there,” Pike said pointing towards the entrance to the cove. Matt came next to him and looked to see the shadow of something moving under the water, something very large. “Holy dust!” Matt nearly yelled. “Alright everybody it’s here, get ready.” Everyone staggered, grabbing their weapons, and taking cover. “Do it Matt,” Pike said. Matt took out the detonator and handed it to Pike. “It’s your fish,” he said. Pike took the detonator. “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering squid; to the last I grapple with thee,” Pike said as he pressed the detonator. “Drama queen, Poetic, but drama queen,” Matt scoffed.

                The charges in the cliffs went off and the cove closed off. The kraken broke the surface of the water in a rage, screeching. It was huge, ten to twelve stories tall with the usual color scheme, and huge tentacles. “Open fire!” Matt ordered. Ruby and Ringo popped up from their hiding places behind some rocks and tried to snipe the monster’s eyes, while, Blake, Yang, Mary, Lulu, Narco, and Iola opened fire from various directions. The beast flailed about, its tentacles striking the cliffs. “Weiss, freeze it,” Matt ordered. Weiss stepped out from her hiding place near the water. She spun the drum on her rapier and it stopped on the ice dust cartridge. The length of the weapon coated itself in ice dust and she stabbed it into the water. An expanding wave of ice began to form as the entire lagoon froze over, trapping the kraken’s tentacles. “Alright its mobility it limited. Everybody charge,” Matt ordered.

                Everybody jumped out from behind their hiding places and charged the monster. They all took their shots at the beast, be it slashing, stabbing, smashing, or punching. The Kraken flailed about in the ice, reeling in pain from the various attacks. Ruby landed on the ice after her first strike. She then jumped up and slashing off one of the tentacles. Narco dug his chainsaw sword into another tentacle and ran it along it, splitting it in half. Iola wrapped her whip around another tentacle and pulled hard, severing it. Mojave opened his sand reservoir and used his semblance to move it out. As he jumped down from one of the bluffs towards the Kraken, he bent the sand around his scimitar. It formed a huge blade of sand that moved up and down like a high powered saw. He brought the blade down and slashed off a tentacle.   

                The Kraken flailed and brought up its tentacles, slamming them down to smash the ice freeing itself. “You’re not getting away from me monster!” Pike yelled at the Grimm as he held out his hands to use his semblance. The water in the cove began to rise and formed huge tentacles. He bent them around and used them to grasp onto the Kraken’s remaining tentacles. “Matt fry it!” Pike yelled to the leader of team MRLN. Matt leaped off the Kraken and converted his scythe to its hover board mode. His decent slowed until he was floating just above the water. He knelt down on the board as two glyphs formed on his hands and larger one on his back to increase the power. “Clear!” Matt yelled to everyone as he touched the glyphs to the water and it surged with electricity. Everyone jumped off of the Kraken as the electricity struck it. The beast seized in pain as the energy coursed through it but it didn’t last long. “Pike go!” Matt yelled to the sailor.

                Pike converted his rifle to its harpoon form. He reached behind his back and grabbed a reel attachment, attaching it to the harpoon. He manipulated a tentacle of water up to him and stepped onto it letting it carry him towards the Kraken. The Kraken began to recover and started swinging at Pike. Pike’s water tentacle dodge and attack and then another. On the Kraken’s third strike he jumped off the tentacle and fired the head off his harpoon on a cord from the reel he had attached. He clicked the reel and it began to reel him onto one of the tentacles. He landed and began running along the tentacle towards the crystal in the Kraken’s head, slashing away tentacles as they tried to swat him off. As he ran along the Kraken he said to himself, “From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.” He jumped up and stabbed at the crystal. “FOR MY FATHER!!!” he yelled.

                They just as he was about to make impacted, the Kraken fired its water jet at him, slamming him into a cliff face and he fell into the water below. “Pike!” Mary Yelled. Everyone opened fire on the Kraken while Mary jump of the cliff. She popped open her umbrella on the way down to slow down and then created a platform of smoke above the water. She landed on the smoke cloud and pulled Pike out of the water. He was dazed but alive. The Kraken backed off and turned to the blocked exit to the cove. It fired its water jet at the rocked blocking its way and they were blown away. The beast quickly jumped over the remaining rocks and vanished into the open ocean.

                Mary carried Pike back up the cliff on her cloud of smoke to join the others. She laid Pike down on the ground and Iola knelt down next to him. Healing energy radiated from her hands and she put them on Pike’s chest. The energy radiated out and enveloped his body before retreating back into her hands.  Pike coughed as he regained consciousness. “Ugh, what happened?” he asked. “Oh thank the dust?” Mary said as she hugged him making him cringe. “Owe. Would someone tell me what happened?” he asked again. “You took a direct hit from the Kraken’s water jet,” Lulu said. “Wait, where’s the Kraken?!” he demanded to know in a panic. “It got away,” Matt said. “For the love of the dust,” Pike cursed as he struck the ground with all his strength. “OWE!” he said as he cringed in pain, holding his hand. “So it’s going to attack the city now?” Ruby asked. “Doubtful. It was heading north east away from Vale when it escaped. I’d say we spooked it and it’s going to go back into hiding. “So what do we do now?” Yang asked. “Drown our sorrows?” Narco inquired. “Drown our sorrows,” Matt confirmed.

                Razor was whipping down the bar top when the group walked in. “Well this is a first. No bolting in and scaring the spikes out of me?” Razor Joked. “I only do that when I’m in a good mood Razor,” Matt said. “We got our sterns handed to us,” Pike added. “Did you guys go after the Kraken?” Razor asked concerned. “I hate that squid,” was all Pike could say. “And I need a drink. Drinks all around Razor,” Matt said. As Razor began mixing drinks he said, “Let’s see as I recall the standing orders for team MMNT are the Sweet Chimney, the Desert Night, the Great White Ale, and the Sweet Wings.” Razor served the last of the drinks and walked into the back. “So what are you guys going to do know?” Matt asked team MMNT. “We’ll probably go back to normal missions. At least until the Kraken makes another appearance, then it’s back to the vendetta,” Mary said. “I will destroy that monstrosity, for my father. I still remember the day it took him from me it was a foggy morning in Atlas…” Pike said as he once again tried to tell the story of when the Kraken killed his father. “Stow it Pike, we’ve all heard this story a million times,” Razor said as he came back in carrying a large covered platter. “We haven’t,” Ruby said, partially wanting to hear the story. “Trust me kid, you don’t want to. He learned all his story telling skills from Port,” Razor said as he set down the platter. “Now as long as you’re here, you can sample my new addition to my food menu,” he said as he lifted the lid from the platter. “Calamari anyone?” the wolf Faunas asked in a smug tone. They all looked at the pile of deep fried squid and then to Razor with unamused looks on their faces. They then proceeded to grab and throw pieces of the fried squid at the cocky bar tender. “Hey guys, it was only a joke. Don’t waste perfectly good food,” Razor said as he started catching some of the pieces in his mouth and eating them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on team MMNT go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-MMNT-654460780


	11. Sky High Scurvy Dogs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While taking Matt's new toy for a test run with the RWBY girls an airship crashes outside of Vale. Being revealed to have been attacked by sky pirates Ozpin has Matt recruit the perfect the perfect group of Beacon graduates to help deal with the problem.

                It was a calm evening in Vale and the girls of team RWBY were walking around looking for their favorite teacher Matt’s dogs. “I told you, you shouldn’t have tried to borrow that textbook from Matt,” Blake said. “How are we going to tell him the dogs got out?” Ruby asked. “But did the dogs really have to take the book with them,” Weiss asked. “Dax, Sarge, Frostbite here boys,” Yang yelled out. “Maybe Ringo will know where they would go. She loves those dogs as much as Matt,” Weiss suggested. “She went into town this afternoon, but what about Narco?” Yang suggested. “It’s worth a try. We got to find those dogs or Matt is going to make us work carnival booths again,” Blake said, cringing at the thought. “How would he do that? There’s no carnival or fundraisers coming up,” Weiss said. “Oh, he’d think of something humiliating,” Yang said with a shiver. “Come on, Narco’s probably in the hanger.”

                The girls walked into the open hanger and could hear the sound of metal banging and socket wrench clicks. They walked down to Narco’s work space and found themselves looking at the back of a car that was half covered by a large cloth and its hood up. Yang whistled, “Woo, dang Narco sweet ride.” “Hey have you seen Matt’s dogs? We accidently let them out of Matt’s place,” Ruby asked. The clicking and banging stopped and the three dogs walked around from the front of the car. A pair of hands slammed down the hood and they saw a greasy Matt in a set of black coveralls. “I figured,” he said smugly. “Ah, Matt we were… We didn’t mean to let the dogs out. Well we just wanted to borrow…” Ruby stuttered. Matt held up a book that the girls had tried to borrow. “You just wanted to pilfer a spare textbook,” he said. “Please don’t make us work another carnival,” they all said simultaneously as they cowered. Matt chuckled, “Relax girls; just ask when you want to borrow a book next time.” He set the book down and started taking off his coveralls revealing his usual outfit under it, short of the harness for his talons and his jacket. “Oh thank the dust. We thought you were going to kick our butts for this,” Ruby said. “You’re just lucky these three are so well trained. If they ever run out like that, they usually go straight to me or one of my teammates,” Matt said as he wiped the grease of his hands and face. He held the book out to Sarge and the dog bit down on it, hard enough to hold it but not enough to leave marks. “Alright boys go home, and put that on my desk,” he said. He snapped pointing to the door and the dogs ran off.

                “So what are you working on here anyway?” Yang asked as she looked over the car under the cloth. “I’ve been working on her for the past year, and you’re just in time for her first start up,” Matt said as he buckled on his harness and pulled on his jacket. He grabbed the cover cloth and whipped it off to reveal a green and black muscle car with green tinted windows. Its body looked like a fusion between a 1973 ford falcon and a 1970 dodge charger (think transformers G1 Lockdown car form). It had a small spoiler on the back, three angled exhaust pipes on each side, and a supercharger sticking out of the hood. “Meet Eligos. Isn’t she a beauty?” Matt said as he laid his head on the roof and rubbed it like a pet. Yang’s inner motor head broke loose as she started looking over the car. “Holy dust Matt. This things amazing,” she said. “I know. I pulled out all the stops for her,” he said as he popped the hood. Yang nearly drooled at the sight of the engine. “Is this?” she began to ask. “Yep a C9 dust combustion engine. Eight cylinders with a galvanized triple reinforced combustion block and a full fluid cooling system. Add the nitro dust injection system and she’ll top out at 200 easy,” he said. “What’s nitro dust?” Ruby asked. “It’s a special formula of fire dust mixed with other components that street racers apparently like to use,” Weiss explained. Yang examined the nitro system and said, “Basically at the press of a button, the system injects the special dust formula into the combustion cylinders and it nearly doubles the RPM for a while. Wow. I’ve heard of these kinds of nitro systems but I’ve never seen one. What else have you got hidden in here?” “Oh so much,” he said as he closed the hood. He took out his scroll and started pressing a few buttons. “I rigged her so she can be partially remote controlled,” He said as he pressed a final button. Suddenly the whole frame raised on hydraulics. “Full all terrain mode. Hydraulics raised her off the ground and absorbed the vibrations of rough terrain. The transmission shifted from rear-wheel drive to four-wheel but it cut back on the top speed a bit to do so. Oh and, of course, there’s the combat systems,” he said.

                “Combat systems?” the girls asked. Matt smirked as he pressed a few buttons on his scroll. The hydraulics lowered the car back down to normal. Then, slots on the hood opened up and machine guns rose out, while another rose out the back and a pair of square rocket pods rose out of the truck area. A jagged metal ram shaped similar to a locomotive’s cow catcher folded out from under the front bumper and spinning spikes extended out of the wheels. The girls were shocked. “Oh come on, after everything you know about me, you didn’t expect me to arm it?” he asked rhetorically. “You didn’t arm your motorcycle,” Blake said. “Of course I did. It’s got a pair of forward submachine guns, a grenade launcher, and a razor tack deployment system,” he said. “Razor tacks?” Weiss asked. “It scatters razor sharp tacks behind it to cause blown outs. Plus there’s the spike strips it can trail behind but those are a little harder to use,” he said as he moved over to the forward guns. “The machine guns are on articulating arms for a better field of fire as is the back turret and the missile launcher. The tires are filled with a compressive foam instead of air so they are impossible to blow out. Plus them have deployable tire shields and spinning spikes to cause enemy blow outs,” he said as he kicked the tires. “The body is inch thick dust infused armored plating that can stop most handheld weaponry and the windows are half inch thick bullet proof glass.” “For the love of dust. Next thing you know you’re going to say it’s a plane and a submarine,” Weiss joked. “I couldn’t get it to work on paper so I threw those features out,” he said as he opened the door.

                “Wouldn’t everything be green through the windows?” Weiss asked. “Its special glass that only appears green from the outside, it’s perfectly clear on the inside. The inside was black and green with fine leather seats and a flashy dashboard full of switches, gauges, and screens. “The interior is top quality Vacuo leather and seats five. The wheel has built in mini joysticks to control the movements of the guns,” he said. He flipped a switch and the windshield projected a heads up display. “The heads up display is linked into the car’s computer and can display maps, tracking data, auto targeting for the weapons, and it gets over a thousand music stations,” he said finishing his list of aftermarket extras. “Gees Matt, all you need is a grappling hook,” Weiss joked. “I have fourteen of them,” Matt said. The girls were struck solemn.

                Matt pressed a button on his scroll and all the combat equipment retracted into the car. “Anyway, it’s time for the moment I’ve been working towards, the first turn over,” Matt said as he jingled a set of keys with key chain shaped like his emblem. “Oh yeah let’s hear it. With that engine it ought to be monstrous,” Yang said. “Matt sat down in the driver’s seat, sat back, and closed his eyes as he ran his hands over the wheel and dash. “What are you doing?’ Blake asked. “Absorbing it. I’m just taking it all in,” Matt said. He sat there for a minute and then sighed, “All right Eligos, time to wake up.” “What exactly is the significance of that name?” Weiss asked. “It’s an old religion of sorts, Eligos was a demon and a duke of hell. This car is my demon,” Matt said as he fitted the key into the ignition. “Fire in the hole,” Matt said as he turned the key. The engine roared to life, sending out vibrations the girls could feel on their skin. Matt stuck his head out the window and yelled, “Oh yeah! Roar for me baby!” as he revved the engine over and over. He turned off the engine and got out. He laid his cheek against the roof and rubbed the roof saying, “Oh, you’re perfect.” “Dang, Matt, that sounded beautiful!” Yang said. “It just sounded like a lot of noise to me,” Weiss said. Matt and Yang gave her a cold look. “Noise?! Weiss, to a true motor head, that is the most beautiful sound in Remnant. The sound of several hundred moving parts working in perfect sync. That’s better than any orchestra,” Matt said.

                “So anyone want to go for a ride?” he asked. “Heck yeah,” they all said. “Weiss, Ruby, and Blake piled into the back set and Yang got in the front passenger seat. Matt started the car up and they could feel the vibrations of the powerful engine. Matt shifted into reverse to back out so they were facing the exit. He shifted into gear and put the pedal to metal and they took off towards the school gates and onto the highway.

                Matt was in total bliss as they road down the highway as was Yang. However, the other girls were focusing less on the ride and more on their own elbow room. “Weiss, get your elbow out of my kidney,” Ruby said. “Then scoot over,” Weiss shot back. “I can’t, Blake’s already getting crushed.” “Hold on girls. I’ll opener her up,” Matt said as he flipped a switch and the roof retracted, exposing them to the wind and opening a little more wiggle room for them. “Matt how the dust do all these features fit into this car?” Blake asked. He answered her question with a question. “How does Coco fit that huge machinegun in that small handbag?” he said as he shifted up a gear. As they began to enjoy the ride, they noticed a huge shadow envelop them. The looked up to see an old cargo airship passing over them very low. However, it trailed smoke and they could see small fires through holes in the hull. It continued over them towards a nearby clearing and they could hear the sound of a crash. “Well that can’t be good,” Matt said as he began to flip a few switches. “Hold on.” The hydraulics in the car raised the suspension and Matt shifted the transmission into four wheel drive. He turned off the road dirt and made a beeline towards the smoke rising from the crashed airship.

                They reached the clearing to find the wreckage of the ship, fires spreading throughout it. The girls all jumped out. “Do you think anyone’s still inside?” Blake asked. Matt flipped a switch and the beads up display appeared on the windshield. It shifted to infrared vision and they could see a group banging against the outer hull, trapped inside. “We’ve got to get them out of there!” Yang said. “Hold on,” Matt said as he flipped a couple switches. Two grappling hooks extended from the bumper and targeted the piece of hull that was trapping the crew. Ruby dashed up to the piece of hull the crew was trapped behind and yelled, “Stand back!” before dashing away. Matt pulled a trigger on the wheel and grappling hooks shot out into the hull locking into it. He threw the car in reverse and gunned it. The car skidded in the dirt and then the section of the hull was torn out and pulled away. Matt got out and joined the girls as they helped the crew out of the wreck. “Is anyone left?” Matt asked a man whose arm he had slung over his shoulder, helping him out of the rubble. The man coughed, “The captain. He’s trying to shut down the reactor.” Matt set down the man and ran back towards the wreck. “Don’t go; it’s suicide!” Weiss yelled. He ignored her and bolted into the blaze. No one breathed as the seconds went by; all they could do was wait. There was a boom and the fire rushed from the opening they had made. They were awe struck when a swirling green object flew from the opening like a rocket. It skidded against the ground and came to a stop. The girls walked up to it, seeing what looked like a large capsule. Suddenly the solid form went slack looking like a bale of rolled up cloth. It unrolled to reveal Matt and the ship’s captain, completely unaffected by the blaze. As Matt sat up, they could see that the green cloth was actually his jacket that had extended somehow. He put his hand to his head saying, “Ow, I feel like a pig in a blanket.” “Matt, what the heck happened? How did you survive this? What’s with your jacket?” Weiss demanded to know. Matt rolled the unconscious captain off his jacket and stood up, dusting himself off. “I’ve been caught in a blast or two in my life, so I’ve prepared for it,” he said as he began pulling a cord in his jacket and the new extension began to retract up into its normal form. “I had Rouge custom make these jackets. It’s rigged to expand into the full form you saw. The inside has been lined with layers of light weight metallic sheets that reflect heat and ice dust laced cloth to further protect against temperatures all between fire proof materials. As for the capsule thing, all my clothes are made of a special static instant-armor cloth. When you put an electrical charge into it, the threads lock together and tighten into woven armor stronger than steel,” he explained. “Wouldn’t that make it so you couldn’t move?” Blake asked. “It’s stitched so that I can make only certain sections harden depending on where I send the charge,” he said. Suddenly Matt grabbed his arm in pain. He took off his jacket to reveal a large bruise from when he landed. “Unfortunately it doesn’t guard against wide spread impact force,” he said as he leaned against his car and slid down to the ground, wincing all the way down.

                Eventually emergency services arrived and brought the fire under control. The medics looked over the crew who were lucky to be alive, especially the captain thanks to Matt. As an EMT was patching up Matt’s bruised arm, a bullhead landed near the sight. It opened up and Ozpin, Goodwitch, Ironwood with a few of his guards, and the other members of team MRLN got out. “Matt; oh my dust, are you ok?!” Ringo asked in a panic as she ran up and hugged him. “Owie!” he said as he cringed from her hugging his bruised arm. “Ringo, I’m fine. There the ones I’m worried about,” he said gesturing to the ship’s crew. “Matt what happened here?” Goodwitch asked. “Me and the girls were taking my new car for its first joy ride when the ship flew over us and crashed here. We came and helped get the crew out before the reactor blew,” Matt explained. “Dang it Matt! You finished Eligos and didn’t invite me on the first ride?!?” Narco yelled to him as he drooled over the monster of a car. “You were out in town and I couldn’t wait,” Matt argued. “Hum, this is a first. One made it through,” Ozpin said. “What are you talking about?” Matt asked. “Airships have been disappearing in the skies east of here. This is the first ship coming from that route to make it,” Ironwood said. “Why am I always the last to hear about these kind of things?” Matt asked sarcastically. “Pirates,” they heard. They turned to see the captain of the ship, who had regained consciousness. “What was that, sailor?” Matt asked. “We were attacked by pirates,” the captain said. “They came out of nowhere in the Great Vale mountains. We had no weapons, we couldn’t fight back. So, we maxed out the engines and ran, hoping to escape. They blasted us as we ran, damaging the reactor. We managed to escape the mountains and they didn’t follow. We thought we were free and clear so we just kept limping on to Vale. We got so close. Then conduits exploded, one by one, until we were lost the main gravity dust drive and crashed.” “It’s alright, sailor. You and your crew are safe; just rest.” Matt said as the EMTs took the captain away.

                “Pirates? Vale hasn’t seen real sky pirates in decades,” Goodwitch said. “Indeed. How are we to deal with this?” Ozpin asked. “Well, it’s not like they no longer exist. Vacuo and Mistral have both had reports of sky pirates working in their skies in recent years,” Lulu said. “What about team ROOC (rook)?” Matt asked. “You mean Radcliff Hook’s team? Those four are unhinged!” Goodwitch argued. “Rad’s perfect. He comes from a family of ex pirates and knows all their tricks,” Matt said. “Well, do you know where to find them?” Goodwitch asked. “Well, it’s not too hard to track a team with their own airship. I can probably get them here in a few days,” he said. “Very well, contact Mr. Hook and his team,” Ozpin said.

                Matt made his call, and a few days later he and his team we standing on the landing pad near the cliff. Team RWBY was walking by and noticed them scanning the horizon with binoculars. “Hey guys, what are you doing?” Ruby asked as they joined them. “Watching for the Red Fortune,” Lulu said. “The what?” Ruby asked. “Team ROOC’s airship,” Lulu answered. “A team of huntsmen has their own airship?” Weiss asked in disbelief. “It’s a family heirloom of Rad’s. It’s an older ship from back before dust propulsion systems, when gravity dust drives that allowed airships to fly were created but still used wind to propel themselves. His family has been retrofitting it with new technology as needed. New armored hull, weapons, dust propulsion, etcetera,” Matt said. What kind of family passed down a ship as an heirloom?” Blake asked. “A family of pirates,” Ringo said. “Radcliff’s ancestors were pirates, his great grandfather being the last of them. During the Great War his family began working as mercenaries, offering their services to governments and corporation, and they’ve continued that practice since,” Matt said. “Ship ahoy!” Narco said pointing at the horizon.

                “What is it?” Ruby asked, shading her eyes to try to see. The members of team MRLN handed their binoculars to the girls and they looked towards where Narco was pointing. The girls looked to see a red wooden airship with brass colored armor. It was designed like an old fashion sailing ship, its sails spread wide, cargo net ladders up the masts, and a high back end with two propeller engines in the back for propulsion. The sides were lined with cannons and three heavy turrets on each side. “Woah,” Ruby said. As they looked the ship over they could see a man hanging off of one of the cargo nets, his coat waving in the wind.

                He had black hair tied in a short pony tail, a red bandana on his head, and a cybernetic eyepatch with a red lens. He wore a white shirt with a black vest with red detail under a red pirate’s coat with gold detail. His pants were black cargos and had a set of brown leather pirate boots with lots of straps. He had a brown leather belt and shoulder strap holding his falchion sword and dagger on his right hip. He wore a gold ascot around his neck and all his buckles were gold. But his most interesting feature was his left hand which was a hook that he was using to hold onto the net ladder and a bright red parrot on his shoulder.

                The ship pulled up along the landing platform. “Ahoy, MRLN!” yelled the young man on the net ladder. He unhooked his hook hand and aimed it towards another mast. The hook launched off and hooked onto the mast with a cable. The parrot flew off his shoulder as he jumped off the ladder and swung down, landing in front of the members of teams RWBY and MRLN and the parrot landed on his shoulder. “Radcliffe Hook, you salty dog; how’re you doing?” Matt asked. “No worse for wear,” Radcliffe said. “Girls, I’d like you to meet Radcliffe Hook, Huntsman and sky privateer,” Matt said introducing Radcliffe. “Call me Rad,” Radcliffe said holding out his hand to shake. Ruby moved to shake it but flinched back when she realized she was about to stick herself on Rad’s hook. “Rad stop trying to skewer our students,” Ringo scolded. Rad chuckled as he held up the hook saying, “Oh, have a sense of humor.” The hook folded in and retracted into his arm and a human mechanical hand popped out to take its place. “Smee want a cracker, Smee want a cracker?” the parrot squawked. “And this is Smee,” Rad said as he took a cracker from his jacket and fed it to the bird.

                A gangplank dropped down off the side of the ship, onto the platform, and the other three members of team ROOC walked off the ship. “I’d like you to meet the rest of the crew. This is Zorro Obsidian,” Rad said as he gestured to the first young man stepping off the gangplank. He had tanned skin and dark hair tied back in a short ponytail. His clothes were simple a red and black shirt, black pants, a black jacket with a red interior and the sleeves rolled back to the elbow, a red sash belt, and black sneakers. He wore black sunglasses, a black bandana tied around his neck and hanging from his shoulder was a black half shoulder cape with a red interior that hung to his waist, obscuring the pair of rapiers on his hip.

                Rad gestured to the next member of his team, a girl, “This is Oralie Keys.” She had blonde hair messy ponytail and a single earing that was an old tumbler style key on her ear. She wore a gold halter top with black detail, a high cut black jacket with the sleeve just past the elbows and gold cuffs. She had a black skirt with gold detail, tight gold Capri pants under it with a black stipe down the side of each leg, and black and gold high top sneakers. On her back hips was what looked like a huge lock and tumbler key with a handle and two different ammo clips of some sort in the bow.

                “And then finally we have Cheshire Amethyst,” Rad said gesturing to the last member of his team. Matt leaned over to the girls and whispered, “Keep an eye on her. If memory serves, Cheshire likes screwing with people.”  Cheshire was a Faunus. She had pink and purple tied back, a messy ponytail and messy bangs hanging down the front and a set of cat ears on her head. The thing about her was the girls couldn’t get much of an idea of what she looked like. She wore a large bulky purple and pink horizontal striped fur coat that was so long it hum barely a half inch from the ground. The sleeves were also incredibly long, hanging so long that they completely covered her hands and the ends drooped when she raised her arms. The collar was also so high that they couldn’t see anything below her nose. To finish her look was a large fluffy tail with the same purple and pink stripes as her coat waving behind her through an opening in the back of the coat.

                “A pleasure,” Zorro said as he kissed Weiss’s hand. “Oh, finally. One of Matt’s friends is a gentleman,” Weiss said blushing a bit. “I’d be careful if I were you. I don’t think any woman has had a second date with that lady killer,” Lulu said. “She’s right,” Oralie said coming up behind Zorro. “Most girls don’t even finish the first date.” “That’s an exaggeration,” Zorro argued. “Down boy. She was just kidding,” Cheshire purred from inside her coat. “Aren’t you hot in that thing?” Blake asked. Cheshire turned to Blake, looking her over with half closed eyes. “I think you of all people would understand cats like it toasty. Wouldn’t you say kitten,” Cheshire said in a playfully endearing tone. Blake blushed, “How did you…” “The eyes are a dead giveaway. You’re subconsciously sizing up everyone you meet as potential prey or threats, classic cat Faunus behavior,” Cheshire answered before Blake could finish. “Goodwitch was right; they are nuts,” Yang said.

                “Finally, a student agrees with me,” they heard behind them. They turned to see Ozpin and Goodwitch walking up. “Mr. Hook, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” Ozpin said. “Back at you Professor, but I don’t think we’re here on a social call,” Rad said.

                “Quite right, Vale is having a pirate problem,” Ozpin said. “We’re in,” Rad said instantly. “We’re in, we’re in!” Squawked Smee. “Rad, shouldn’t we just get some details first?” Oralie argued. “It’s pirates, I live and breathe pirates,” Rad said. “Can we get the details anyway?” she asked. “There’s a group of pirates attacking airships in the Great Vale Mountains, we need someone that knows how pirates think to stop them,” Matt said. Rad began rubbing his hands together, “Ooh this will be fun, but we’re going to need something.” “What would that be?” Goodwitch asked. “A crew, the retrofitted Atlesian knight-130s we use kind of got blown to bits and our replacements won’t be ready for a month or so,” Rad said. “It’s not like we have combat robots on hand,” Goodwitch said. “Actually I was hoping for something a little fleshier,” he said. “I’ll talk Razor in to covering my classes,” Matt said catching Rad’s meaning. “Well we’ll need a few more than just you Matt,” Rad said. “So how many do you need?” Matt asked. “including people to man the turrets, help in the engine room, deck suppression; 16 should be enough,” Rad said. “Alright so I’ll bring my team and 3 teams of students,” Matt said. “You want to bring students into the field?!’ Goodwitch said in disbelief. “It’s only pirates, it’s not like I’m suggesting we attack an Atlas military facility,” Matt argued. “How long would they be gone?” Ozpin asked considering going through with it. Rad mumbled something no one could hear. “What was that?” Goodwitch asked. “A week or two tops, a week or two tops!” Smee squawked. “Smee! You keep that up and I’ll Keel haul ya,” Rad threatened the bird. “Translation, no more good bird seed,” Cheshire added.

                “Professor Ozpin, twelve students can’t be gone for that long. They have classes to attend; what will happen to their grades?” Goodwitch argued. “Me and my team can take care of their educations. We can teach their classes while we’re gone,” Matt said. “And who will cover your class schedule?” she asked. “I have a list of huntsman that owe me favors; give me a day and I can have guest lecturers for the next 3 weeks,” he said. “Well then, I’d say it’s settled,” Ozpin said. “Professor, you can’t be serious,” Goodwitch argued. “This threat must be dealt with promptly before the usual flood of ships start to pour in from Mistral full of people coming to attend the Vytal Festival. They will be bottlenecked in that mountain range and make perfect targets. Matt get your substitutes together and choose the teams to take with you,” Ozpin said. “I think I’ll take teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY,” Matt said. “Very well, alert them of their new assignment. I would like you to be off by tomorrow afternoon,” Ozpin said. “Perfect, that should be just enough time to resupply our ammunition and food supplies,” Rad said.

                Matt alerted his students of their new assignments and got his substitutes scheduled. The next afternoon the members of teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY met team MRLN on the landing pad the Red Fortune, their bags packed. “You sure they can keep up Matt?” Rad asked. “They’re the best I’ve got,” he answered. “Fair enough,” Rad said and he turned to the students. “Alright, mateys; all aboard. We shove off in two hours. Oralie will give you the tour,” he said as he left to supervise the loading of the supplies.

                The Red Fortune was a large ship, over 60 meters long and 15 wide.  It had over 50 cannons and 3 heavy cannon turrets on each side, 3 tall masts, and a he figurehead of a crocodile on the front. As the teams stepped onto the deck Nora squealed, “Oh boy we get to go on a cruise!” “We’re not going on a cruise Nora. We are going to hunt pirates,” Ren corrected her. “Yeah but we get to go in a boat,” she said. “Well, this ought to be an interesting experience,” Velvet added. “And we get a few weeks off from school,” Coco added. “Don’t count on it,” Matt said. “While we’re hunting, we will have a lot of free time, so Ringo, Lulu, Narco, and I will be continuing your classes aboard ship.” “And you will be expected to work,” Oralie said as she walked up. “What?!” all the students whined. “On this boat, everyone carries their own weight. You’ll be expected to help in the galley, help in the engine room, man the crow’s nest, and of course the old cliché of swabbing the decks.” “You got to be kidding,” Jaune complained. “We’re here to hunt pirates, not go on vacation,” Matt said.

                “Oralie, you want to give them the tour?” “Sure Matt, but first the gravity chutes,” Oralie said. “Gravity chutes?” Jaune asked. Oralie passed out some small disk shaped devices with rip cords on them. “Keep these on you at all times, especially when you’re out side on the main deck or up in the masts. If you happen to fall off the ship, pull the cord and it will start a mini gravity dust generator that will slow your fall and let you land safely on the ground. Then a beacon will start so we can find you,” Oralie explained. Everyone clipped them on themselves and Oralie began the tour. “We’ll start where we are now, the main deck. Zorro will give you a crash course in rigging and working with the sails later. When up here your need to watch for stray ropes swinging around and swaying masts so you don’t get hit. If you’re good on your feet and have a good sense of balance, you’ll probably be assigned to work up here. You’ll be expected to be able to run along the beams to let loose sails. Or if you got good eyes you may be one of the two we keep as spotters in the crow’s nest,” Oralie stepped over to platform in the middle of the deck. “Put you bags here and they’ll be lowered into the ship. The only way to get between decks is tight ladder shafts so bags won’t fit. They all started put their bags on the freight lift when Matt said, “First someone relieve Ruby of that Corgi.” Ruby’s face went red as Zwei popped his head out of her backpack.

                Matt handed Zwei off to Razor, who was watching the dogs, and then they returned to the tour. “I can’t believe you thought you could get way with that after I busted you last time,” Matt said. “Anyway, let’s move on to the bridge,” Oralie said as she herded them to the back of the ship, up some stairs, and to the bridge of the ship. It had a perfect view of the whole deck and everything around the ship. At the front was a large, ornate, old-fashioned ship’s wheel along with several fancy levers, and tubes sticking up out of the deck with funnels on the ends. “Here is where we steer the ship. The wheel controls turning, while all the levers control altitude, engine speed when we aren’t using the sails, and the side step thrusters,” Oralie explained. “What are the tubes for?” Ruby asked. Old fashion communication tubes. From here the captain can give orders to anyone on the ship. They allow him to tell the crew in the masts when he wants sails let loose or furled up, or when he wants us to fire cannons,” Oralie explained. She led them back down the stairs when Blake noticed a big door under the bridge, “What’s in there?” “Captain’s cabin. It’s Radcliffe’s boat so he gets the biggest room. Such are the rules of the sky,” Oralie said. She popped open a hatch revealing a ladder down into the ship. “Alright down the hatch,” Oralie said.

                They all climbed down the hatch and into a large room. It had many tables and a food serving station. “This is the galley where you will be eating,” Oralie said. “And we’ll be using it for your classes while we’re here,” Matt added. They moved towards a hatch and looked in to see a row of cannons spanning the length of the ship with a complex network of rails above them and some sort of tubes going into the cannons. “This is one of the gun decks. There are three on each side of the ship and where we do cannon maintenance. If you end up working weapons you will have to help with fixing and maintaining these broadside cannons,” Oralie said. “What’s with the rails and tubes? It looks like a pinball machine in here,” Coco asked. “They’re for ammunition. New cannon shells roll down the rails, then drop through slots in the rails and are pushed into the cannon breaches by pistons. The tubes are for dust. We use a lot of different shells and making sure we have certain shells with certain dust affects is a pain. Basically each shell is hallow and we can fill the shells with any form of dust we see fit,” Oralie explained. They left the cannon deck and Oralie showed them the engine room. It was a large space full of large gears, pistons, and pipes. “This is the engine room. These engines power the dust engines we use for higher speeds,” Oralie explained. “If you have engines, why do you need the sails?” Weiss asked. “Dust reactor fuel is expensive, so we use the sails for most travel. Plus there is the stealth aspect,” Oralie said. “What stealth aspect?” “Airships track each other’s movements by reading the energy signature of other ships’ dust reactors. When we use the sails, we shut down the reactor making us relatively invisible to most long range sensors, and in a mountain range we can hide from most enemy ships pretty well,” Oralie said. They left the engine room and walked to the far end of the ship. There they came to a door plastered with signs saying “Danger,” and “High explosives.” “This is the magazine,” Oralie said. “Oh, is it a fashion magazine?” Coco asked. Oralie was unamused. “The ammunition magazine. Contained within the two foot thick armored walls is all our cannon ammunition. Unless you are with a member of team ROOC, **DO NOT GO IN THERE!** Also do not bring anything that sparks in there or you’ll blow us all to kingdom come,” Oralie said. The students all took a step back in intimidation.

                “Anyway, let’s move down to the next deck,” Oralie said as opened another hatch for a ladder shaft. They climbed down to the next deck and continued the tour. “This is the living deck. Here you will find your rooms, the showers, the gym, and the lounge (or, as we call it, the tavern),” Oralie said. They had climbed down into the tavern. It was an open area that probably took up a quarter of the deck. It was an open space with several tables, a dart board, a few old arcade machines, a huge television, and a bar along the back wall. They followed Oralie out of the lounge and into a hallway. Oralie opened a door to reveal gym equipment. “Feel free to use the gym in you down time. A huntsman or huntress’s body is their greatest tool and needs to be maintained,” she said. They moved down the hall to a set of doors and the lift that they had left their bags on. “These will be your rooms. Each team will share one. You guys can choose who gets what room yourselves,” She said as she opened the doors. Each room was pretty simple. They were about half the size of their dorm rooms, each containing two in wall bunks on each wall with storages compartments under them and a porthole on the wall between them. It was small with each bunk being no bigger than those on a sleeper bus but it looked relatively comfortable. “Showers are down the hall, both boys and girls. I trust that after your time at Beacon, you can be mature about the close living arrangements,” Oralie said. The members of team MRLN will share the two guest cabins down the hall with the officers’ cabins,” she said gesturing down the hall. “Anyway that just about does it. All that’s on the bottom deck is storage and I doubt you want to see that. I have to go help see to preparations for departure, so get yourselves settled in. We shove off in about an hour and you will want a view for that,” Oralie said and then left.

                The students unpacked and then went up to the main deck to watch their departure. Matt was down on the landing pad talking with Becky Oobleck and Razor Silver who had Zwei and Matt’s dogs Dax, Sarge, and Frostbite. “So you guys got the schedules?” Matt asked Razor and Becky. “Yeah, we got it,” Becky said. “Razor and his team have this week and then Scotch and Lonan will be coming into town to cover next week. Should we be gone longer than that, call team MMNT or STKR,” Matt said. “We got it Matt. It’s not like you haven’t left substitutes before,” Razor assured him. “Yeah but it’s the first time I’ve been gone this long,” Matt said. “It’ll be fine Matt. Have fun on your pleasure cruise,” Razor said. “This is work Razor, we aren’t going for fun,” Matt retorted. “For you, man, this kind of work is fun,” Razor said. “Come on Matt, it’s time to shove off,” Rad said. “I’ll be there in a minute,” Matt said as he knelt down to his dogs. “Alright boys, I’m going to be gone for a while but I’ll be back. Listen to Razor and watch out for each other,” he said as he petted each of the dogs. The three of them barked happily and walked over to Razor who then petted each of them.

                Matt and Rad boarded the ship and they retracted the gangplank, the mooring lines were released, and Radcliffe stepped up to the helm. “Alright, let’s get underway,” Rad said as he cracked his knuckles and grabbed onto the spokes of the wheel. “We’re ready to go when you are, captain,” Cheshire said as she walked up behind him. Razor pulled over one of the communication pipes and spoke into it, “Alright everybody, we’re about to get underway. Do yourselves a favor and grab onto something.” Rad grabbed one of the levers and pulled it saying, “Side step 25%.” Dust thrusters on the side of the ship facing the landing platform fired and the ship eased away from the platform. Razor waved from the platform as the ship left as the dogs barked their goodbyes. “Pivot to starboard, 40%” Rad said as he pulled two more levers. The thrusters of the port side of the bow and the starboard side of the stern fired and the ship pivoted around. After turning away from the school the opposite thrusters fired and the rotation stopped. “Alright, Cheshire how’s the wind?” he asked. “We got a nice strong wind headed east. Under sails we should make it to the Great Vale Mountains in two days,” she said. “Good,” he said. “Yo ROOC, give me tops and main,” he yelled to his crew on the deck. Zorro, Oralie, and Cheshire each ran to one of the masts. They grabbed onto some ropes hanging from the masts and kicked a lever at the base of each mast. The ropes they held onto began to reel in and pulled them up into the masts. They began to pull up ropes and some of the sails were released. The sails filled with wind and the ship jerked forward.

                As the ship began to pick up speed as the students all began climbing up from the lower decks. They all walked up to the bridge where Radcliffe stood. “Wow, I can’t believe this old bucket actually works,” Weiss said. “It’s a work of art to see those sails full,” Rad said as he adjusted the wheel a bit. “So, anyone want to take a turn?” he asked. The students all raised a hand. “Eh, I’ll go with Ruby since I like her taste in color,” Rad said as he stepped aside but still keeping a hand on the wheel. Ruby stepped up to the wheel and took it by the spokes. Rad let go and the wheel instantly jerked to the left. Ruby acted fast and forced the wheel back around before the ship’s course changed. “That’s right, keep her steady. Just try to keep the masts lined up with those two peaks on the horizon,” he said pointing towards the horizon. “Always be ready for shifts in the rudder, it has a mind of its own. The helmsman needs to balance the ship’s movements as it’s affected by the environment,” he said. Ruby kept the ship steady and then gave the wheel back to Rad.

                As the ship moved into a more open area, they opened the rest of the sails and they picked up speed. Matt stood at the bow of the enjoying the wind in his face. “This is fun,” Ruby said as team RWBY came up to join him. “Yeah, there’s something about a sailing ship that just feels better than a modern ship,” he said. “You mean the lack of engine vibration?” Weiss asked. “That’s not what he means,” Rad said as he walked up, having passed the helm off to Cheshire. “It’s the romance of it. There’s a magic to an old sailing ship that I just can’t get enough of,” he said as he leaned against the bowsprit looking towards the horizon. “Reminds me of that trip we all took our junior year,” Rad said. “Yeah MRLN, ROOC, MMNT, SBLM, JABR, RAZR and a few other teams all piled aboard and sailed this bucket to Pearl Beach in Vacuo,” Matt said. “Spring Break capital of Remnant. We brought this thing in right behind the stage that Rock TV was filming the action from and fired off those colorful airburst rounds like fireworks,” Rad added. “Yeah, when we showed up, then it was a party,” Matt said. “Sounds like you guys really knew how to party,” Yang said. “Hey guys, chow time!” Narco yelled to them from a hatch in the deck.

                They joined the others in the galley for diner after which a crew meeting was held. “Ok, it’s time for your assignments,” Rad said. “Tomorrow you will each be getting a crash course in ship operations so be ready.” Rad took out his scroll and flipped through it. “Ok, Blake, Ren, and Fox you will be helping Zorro and Ringo in the Rigging. Ruby and Coco will help Oralie and Lulu with weapon maintenance. Yang, Nora, and Yatsuhashi will help Narco down in the engine room. Weiss and Pyrrha will help on the bridge with Cheshire. Velvet and Jaune will be in the kitchen.” “What about you and Matt?” Weiss asked. “I have navigation and Matt is the ship’s trouble shooter who gets passed around depending on where he’s needed,” Rad explained. “Get some rest. Your crash courses start at eight,” Matt said.

                Late that night, Matt had the helm, keeping the ship on course as everyone slept. Of course he had cheated, jamming a broom in the wheel to keep it from moving. He propped his feet up in a chair and was running a sharpening stone over the edge of his great sword Storm Reaper, a single flickering lantern his only light other than the stars, and the only sounds were the sound of the stone on steel and the creaking of the ship. “I never took you for the brooding type,” he heard. He looked over to see Rad coming into the light with a pot of coffee and a pair of mugs. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind,” Matt said. As he set his sword aside and took a mug from Rad. Rad filled it and then sat next to Matt with a cup of his own. “So, worried about your students?” Rad asked. “You could say that,” Matt said. ‘Relax, it’s just a group of pirates,” Rad assured him. “That’s not what I’m worried about,” Matt said. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with Ozpin asking us and a lot of other huntsmen and huntresses to hang around Vale for the Vytal Festival would it?” Rad asked. “Something’s been put into motion, Rad… something that could possibly change the world of Remnant as we know it. The question is, for better or worse?” Matt said as he sipped his coffee, looking to the shattered Moon above.

                He next day, the students received their crash courses in working the ships. By the time they were done, they could probably run the ship themselves. The next two days were uneventful as they sailed to the Great Vale Mountains. When they weren’t working, everyone took to doing their own thing. Ruby and Lulu spent their time working on the cannons or their weapons. Weiss would go through financial reports for her family company. Blake would sit up in the crow’s nest reading. Yang and Fox would work out in the gym while Yatsuhashi would meditate. Narco either worked in the engine room or kitchen. Oralie would spend her time practicing her lock picking on her collection of locks, while Cheshire slept all day.

                The next afternoon Ruby walked up to the bow to find Matt and Rad looking out towards a nearby mountain they were approaching. “What’s up?” Ruby asked. Matt looked back and said, “Hey Rosebud, just looking towards our first destination.” Matt pointed towards the mountain and Ruby sharpened her eyes to see a town built into the side of the mountain. A fortress sat on the east side of the town and lighthouse at the peak. “Woah, what’s that?” Ruby asked. “Welcome to Peaks West, minnow.” Rad said. “Do us a favor and round everybody up in the galley, would you Ruby?” Matt asked. “Got it,” she said and she dashed off to gather the others.

                Everyone gathered in the galley and Rad began. “Alright everybody, we are going to be pulling into the port of Peaks West in a bit,” Rad said. “Why do we have stop? I thought we were hunting pirates in the mountain range,” Coco asked. “Information,” Matt said. “A little history of the town would probably help. Peaks West started a shanty town for that served as a rest stop for ships sailing through the mountain range,” Rad began to explain. “Why would they need a rest stop? It only takes 3 days to make it to Mistral from Vale,” Weiss said. “Today maybe, but Peaks West started long ago before the great war. At this point in time airships were much slower and couldn’t fly as high as they can now. Navigating the mountains at such a low altitude between the mountain is difficult and a slow process. It could take several weeks just to make it through the mountains and another two to reach Mistral. Plus one in every twenty ships would wreck during the difficult journey through the mountains. Peaks West became a place for sailors could celebrate life while they had it, as they may not have it long. During the Great War a fortress was built as a defensive position. It had full coverage of the entrance to the passage through the mountains allowing it to bottleneck anything that came through. Over the years it became a more developed town with more sturdy buildings but the architecture hasn’t changed much in the past few decades, nor has the atmosphere,” Rad said. “So why are we going there?” Coco asked again. “Information. In Peaks West I can guarantee you that you can find someone that knows something about anything happening within 500 miles. Now we need two volunteers to come into town with me and Matt,” Rad said. Everyone raised a hand. “Before you get all gung ho about it, I need to warn you. Peaks West is still one of the toughest towns in Remnant. It’s a city of Sin, Bars, ruffians, illegal business dealings…” “Don’t forget the Casinos. Lonan made a fortune before they ran him out of town,” Matt added. Rad continued, “Anyway we don’t just need anyone. We need someone that can take care of themselves, can put up with a lot of drunks, and intimidating enough to scare off some of them.” Most of the students put their hands down. “Let’s see, Pyrrha and Weiss are too recognizable, Nora is too hot headed, and they’d eat Ruby, Jaune, or Velvet for lunch. We’ll go with Yang and Coco,” Matt said. “Yes,” Yang said to herself doing a small fist pump. “Come to Rad’s cabin after we dock. As for the rest of you, stay on the ship. Don’t do anything to draw attention while we’re there,” Matt said and they broke up the meeting.

                They pulled in and docked at evening. Coco and Yang knocked on the door to Rad’s cabin and walked in. It was a large cabin with a large window running along the back wall. In front of it was a desk which Rad sat behind. Matt sat in a lounge chair on the other side. The walls were covered in maps and there were shelfs full of ships in bottles, one of which Rad was currently working on. “Good, you’re here,” Rad said as he pushed a standing magnifying glass to the side and looked up at them. “Put these on,” Matt said handing them a pair of dark hooded cloaks. “What are these for?” Yang asked. “New people are often seen as targets in this town. It’s best you hide any reason to notice you and in this town, women draw attention,” Rad said in a tone of disappointment about the town. “It totally clashes with my bag,” Coco said. “Just put it on,” Matt said as he flipped his hood up over his eyes. Rad grabbed a red three pointed hat with gold detail and untied his short ponytail letting his hair flow to his shoulder. He buckled the strap to his scabbards over his chest and converted his mechanical hand to its hook form. “Let’s go,” He said eyeing the others through the crook in his hook.

                They stepped of the gangplank and walked into the town. “Stay close,” Rad said. The girls looked around a bit while trying to keep their heads down. All around them they saw drunks toasting, bar brawls, people smoking and doing other sinful activities. “I didn’t realize places like this existed,” Coco said in disgust. “You guys have been sheltered too much. You’d be surprised just how many places like this there are,” Matt said. “Anyway, we’re here,” Rad said. The girls looked up to see a small building made of salvaged airships with a sign hanging over the door saying “The Drunken Gull”. They walked in. Rad through the door open and they walked in. Everyone in the bar turned to the door but quickly lost interest and returned to their drinks.

                It was a lively place, with dozens of drunken men and women laughing and yelling. Old lanterns hanging from the ceiling provided minimal lighting throughout the place. It was full of old tables and chairs many of which looked like they were built from scrap, a few pool tables and dart boards, and a long bar against the back wall with huge casks of alcohol behind it. Old ship parts were scattered about for decoration and a large cobble stone fire pit sat in the center with a chimney vent above it.

                “What now?” Yang asked. “Keep your ears open. Listen in on conversations but don’t draw any attention to yourselves. Fuses tend to run short in places like this,” Rad said. Yang and Coco each began to walk around listening. Matt and Radcliffe walked up to the bar and sat down, being sure to keep their faces down and unseen. A young barmaid about 23 years old or so came up to them, dressed in a traditional pirate barmaid’s outfit with a red dress. “What will it be, sailors,” she asked. “Well how about a tall sip of you angel fish,” Rad said attempting to flirt. He flicked the end of his hat up so she could see his face and gave her a cocky smile. The woman scoffed, “Ugh, Radcliffe Hook, the bane of every woman in Peaks West, what do you want?” “Always a pleasure Cherry, let’s start over. How about two beers and a little information?” Rad said in a smooth voice. “Like what?” she asked as she filled two wooden mugs with beer from one of the casks behind the bar and set them down in front of Rad and Matt. “Airships going missing in the mountains. A ship managed to make it through a few days ago but crashed just outside of Vale. Survivors say they were attacked by pirates,” Matt said as he gulped down half his beer. “Who’s the hood?” Cherry asked in a rood tone. “An old friend. Now what do you know Cherry?” Rad asked again. “I don’t know anything,” she answered as she started to clean glasses. “Come on Cherry, We both know nothing happens within a hundred miles that isn’t discussed in this hole of yours,” Rad said. “Look I really don’t know anything, but do you see that guy in over by the fire pit?” she asked. The two of them took a quick look over their shoulders to see a lone man sitting at the fire and turned back. “I overheard him saying something about pirates when I was cleaning up,” she said. Matt and Rad downed the last of their beers. Rad took out a few lien and set them on the counter, making sure he left a few lien more than they owed for the beer. “Thanks Cherry, you’re a nymph,” Rad said as he and Matt stood up and walked over to the man by the fire.

                Matt and Rad sat on each side of the man and warmed their hands over the fire. “Can I help you?” the man asked. “Well I hope so. Me and my associate here have a story. It’s about a group of pirates that have been raid ships in a mountain range. We were hoping you may be able to fill in some blanks for us,” Rad said. “Such as?” the man asked. “The name of some of the characters perhaps?” Matt said. “Sure and then I get skinned for my troubles,” the man said coldly. “There’s an old saying that nothing is free in Peaks West. I’m sure we can make it worth,” Rad said. “Forget it that cat would claw off all my skin,” he said. “Cat?” Rad said curiously. Rad gave the guy a few lien and got up soon followed by Matt.

                Rad sat down back at the bar and then Matt joined him. “Hey Rad what was that? He gave us nothing,” Matt argued quietly. “Hey Cherry, a shot of whiskey,” Rad ordered. “And a scotch, neat,” Matt added. “Spill Rad, what’s the deal?” Matt asked him. Cherry brought the drinks. “So was he any help?” she asked. “I think so,” Rad said. “Rad, would you answer me?” Matt demanded as he took a sip of his drink. “He said cat,” Rad said. “So?” Matt asked. “Blaine Calico,” Rad said cryptically. “Blaine Calico, last I heard he was cooling his claws in Vacuo prison,” Cherry said. “Rad, who is Blaine Calico?” Matt asked. “Our target,” Rad said. “Alright so we got a clue. What else do we need to know?” Matt asked. “That’s all we need. I’ve studied every sky pirate in Remnant, past and present. Now that we know who the guy is, we can predict his moves,” Rad said.

                Suddenly they heard a crash. They turned to see one of the drunks in the bar had been thrown across the room. They looked across to the other side of the room to see Yang standing with her fist out having punched the guy across the room. “Yang, we were supposed to keep a low profile,” Coco said next to her. Suddenly every drunk in the place became infuriated and surrounded them, brandishing swords and guns. The two girls whipped off their cloaks off and Yang activated her gauntlets taking a fighting stance.  Matt and Rad looked at each other. “I told you we shouldn’t bring a couple of students with us, let alone a couple of girls. But no, you said it would be a learning experience for them,” Rad said sarcastically. “Let’s just take care of this,” Matt said. The two of them gulped down the rest of their drinks and spun around on their stools and Rad set several hundred lien on the counter. “What’s this for?” Cherry asked. “Damages,” Rad said.

                They stood up, Matt drew his great sword Storm Reaper, and Rad drew his falchion Razor Keel. Yang started punching sailors while Coco smacked some with her bag. A thug was about to slash Coco in the back when Rad swung over on his hook, landing behind her and blocking the attack. Rad converted his hook back to a hand and drew his dagger. He converted it to a pistol and blasted the drunk, sending him flying into a table shattering it. Matt bolted up and blocked a strike on Yang. “What the dust happened?! I thought I told you two to keep a low profile,” Matt said in annoyance. “One of these pervs was coming onto me,” Yang said. “I told you we shouldn’t have brought girls,” Rad said. “We’ll worry about that later. Focus fire on towards the door and let’s blast a corridor out of here,” Matt said. “Right!” they all said in unison. Coco unpacked her bag into its machine gun form and Yang loaded her gauntlets with mid-range rounds. Matt let out his talons in their firing form and converted his sword into its rifle form. The end half of the blade retracted to let two gun barrels out and the handle converted to a stock and grip. Rad returned his falchion to its scabbard and removed the whole thing becoming a rifle. They all aimed towards the door and opened fire. A path formed as drunks and thugs dropped from being hit and the door was blasted away. Together the four of them dashed out of the bar, chased by a small army of enraged drunks. They continued firing at the hoard of drunks as they ran for the port.

                Back on the ship, everyone was lounging around with nothing to do, reading or doing tedious little things when they heard a small explosion in the port. “What was that?” Ruby asked. They all rushed to the side of the deck to see Matt, Rad, Yang, and Coco being chased. “A little help!” Matt yelled to the ship. “Oh no, it happened again,” Oralie griped. “Everyone cover them.” Oralie drew her weapon and the main length of the key opened sliding apart and electricity surged between the two halves becoming a railgun. She held it like a rifle and began to fire at the hoard. All the students with a gun weapon lined up along the side of the ship and began firing at the mob. Cheshire dashed to wheel preparing the ship to depart while Zorro ran around cutting the ship loose from the dock with one of his rapiers. The four ran up the gang plank and Cheshire through the ship in reverse. Whatever ropes were left were torn away as the ship backed away. Some of the drunks tried to jump on the ship but were quickly slashed or blasted off. Rad rushed to the helm taking it from Cheshire. “Everyone hold on!” he yelled to the crew and he pulled a pair of levers. The ship pivoted as the ship continued back and turned towards the mountains. The students all braced themselves on whatever they could grab as the ship turned. Once the ship was facing the right direction, Rad maxed the engines and they began to move towards the entrance to the mountain range.

                However, they weren’t out of the woods yet. Some of the drunks had remained sober enough to man a ship and come after them. It was a small vessel similar to the Red Fortune having sails and based on an old sailing ship, a brig to be specific. “Oh great, the only think worse than a drunken sailor is a drunken ship,” Zorro said. “General quarters guys. We’re fighting,” Rad yelled from the helm. “Is he nuts?!” Lulu asked. “We need to test the crew somehow,” Matt said. Everybody scattered to their positions. Zorro, Ringo, Ren, Blake, and Fox dashed up the masts. Yang, Nora, and Yatsu followed Narco down into the engine room. Ruby, Coco, Velvet, Jaune, Lulu, and Oralie strapped themselves in at the control panels in the weapons control room. Finally Matt, Pyrrha, Weiss, and Cheshire joined Rad on the bridge.

                All the hatches on the sides of the ship opened and cannon barrels extended out of them. “So what do we do?” Jaune asked. “You and Velvet are on the turrets. The joystick in front of you controls all the turrets at once on one side. Jaune you’re on port and Velvet is on Starboard. Just look at the screen, line up the cross hairs and fire when told,” Oralie said. “Ruby and Coco, you guys are in charge of the main broadside cannons. Ruby you’re on port and Coco you’re on starboard. Just line up the arcing paths on the screen and fire when told.” What about you?” Coco asked. “I’m the gunnery officer. I communicate commands from the bridge and supervise the gun command. Now when you’re told to target something, you target it and then signal you have the target. You then wait till you’re told to fire,” Oralie said. “Got it!” all the students in the room said.

                “Everyone ready?” Rad yelled into the communication tubes. “Ready,” Oralie said from the gun deck. “All cylinders green,” Narco said in the engine room. “Nora get down from there!” he yelled at the hammer wielder who was running on top of a giant gear as if it were a treadmill. “Ready,” Zorro said from up in the masts, his other riggers in place to let loose the sails at a moment’s notice. “I guess we’re ready as we’ll ever be,” Cheshire said. “Yo ho ho,” Rad said slyly.

                “All hands, port side kick. Oralie, I want a volley as soon as we have target,” Rad said. He spun the wheel hard while pulling on some levers. As the ship continued forward it spun so the port side faced the incoming brig. Ruby lined up the arc of the cannons the best she could. “Fire!” Rad ordered. The cannons fired off however, they flew short and missed the approaching brig. “For the love of!” Rad cursed. “Clearly we’re going to need to train them better on the cannons,” Cheshire said. “We’ll worry about that later,” Rad said. The approaching brig turned and fired its cannons at the Red Fortune, hitting the ship in the back end. Rad and the others had to stabilize themselves on the bridge. “Everybody alright down there?” Rad called to the engine room. “Nothing major,” Narco said as he put out a small fire with an extinguisher.

                “Alright, I want you to pull all power from the engines and dump it into the dust shield,” Rad said. “I you nuts?! That will bring us to a dead stop,” Narco argued. “Just do it!” Rad ordered. He switched the tube he was speaking into, “Zorro give me half sail.” He switched to another, “Oralie, load the starboard side with ice dust grape shot rounds.” “Aye captain,” she said and turned to Coco. “Coco, on your left is the ammo panel. Swipe it to grape shot and the dust coating under it to ice,” Oralie said. “What’s a grape shot?” Jaune asked. “As I recall, it the really big buckshot,” Coco said. “Exactly, its close range cannon ammo that fires huge groups of small slugs in a wide spread,” Oralie said. Coco swiped through the ammo and hit enter. On the gun decks, new shells rolled down the rails and into the cannons. After they were loaded, blue ice dust flowed down the tubes and into the shells. “Loaded, what am I aiming for?” Coco asked. “Just aim straight. If I know Rad, he’s going to make a really close pass. Velvet have your turrets ready,” Oralie said.

                Up in the masts, Zorro and the students were letting sails loose. Down in the engine room, Narco converted his shotgun into its wrench for, and fitted it onto a giant bolt on a valve that connected the main reactor to the shield generator. His students were running around connecting large dust cables from the valve to the shield generator to handle the energy. “Ready,” Yang said as she finished locking in the last cable. “Ready Rad,” Narco said into the tube. “Hey guys, give me a hand with this,” he said gesturing to the wrench. “Rad are we pulling the old tenderize and cook maneuver?” Oralie asked. “Like a chicken. Have the grill ready,” he said. “Got it,” Oralie said as she started fiddling with her console. “Ruby, load high explosive rounds, and remember, this time, think about where the ship will be, not where it is,” she said.

                Everything was ready. Rad spun the wheel and the ship came about. The brig turned to them and they were headed straight for each other. “Uh Matt, what’s he doing?” Weiss asked in concern. “He’s being pirate,” Matt said. “Fortune favors the bold, and the Hooks are the boldest,” Rad said. “Hooks are the Boldest, Hooks are the Boldest!” Smee squawked. The Red Fortune accelerated towards the enemy ship. “Matt, I don’t like this,” Weiss said, a bit of fear in her voice. Matt just stood there with a smug smile as he looked the other ship approaching them. “Matt?” Weiss said trying to get his attention. He did nothing. The brig got closer. “Matt!” Weiss said beginning to panic. The brig was almost on two of them. They were going to crash. “Matt he’s nuts! You got to stop him!” Weiss said trying to shake him to his senses. Matt finally spoke, “He’s not nuts. He’s a pirate.” “Rad, we are going to die!” Pyrrha said trying to convince him to stop. “We are gonna die,” Rad said. The Brig got closer, “I’m gonna die,” closer, “You’re gonna die,” closer, “We’re all gonna die,” CLOSER! “Just not today!”

                Rad spun the wheel, “Now!” he yelled into the tube to Oralie. She pressed a button and aerosolized fire dust sprayed into the air behind the ship as it crossed in front of the brig. The Red Fortune pulled round the side of the brig. “Fire!” Rad ordered. Coco hit the fire button and each cannon burst forth with thousands of small slugs, peppering the side of the brig. As the brig was pelted, the hull began to freeze over from the ice dust in the shells. “That’s the tenderizing,” Rad said. As the brig passed them, it entered the cloud of fire dust they had left behind. Rad turned drawing his pistol and fired a shot at the cloud igniting it. The brig was caught in the blast, “And there’s the grill.” As the frozen hull of the brig was super-heated, it began to fracture under the strain of the rapid change in temperature. Rad spun the wheel and the ship turned to port, lining up the broadside cannons. Ruby carefully aimed taking into consideration the movements of the two ships. “Fire!” Rad ordered. Ruby fired and the shots rang out, all hitting their target, going through the hull like cardboard. The Brig’s masts collapsed and it was dead in the air.

                “Oralie load the hooks,” Rad said. “The hooks?” she asked to confirm. “I want the drunk in charge,” he said. “Right oh,” she said and she hit some buttons on her console. Rad brought the ship up long side the brig and several grappling hooks launched out, locking the ships together. “You want the students?” Matt asked. “Just keep them off the fortune. We can handle this,” Rad said as he passed the wheel off and left his hat hanging off one of the spokes.

                Rad launched his hook up into the rigging of the other ship and swung onto it, drawing his sword. He landed at the back of the ship and several drunken sailors noticed him. They charged him. Rad activated his semblance. Phantom shapes of where the drunks would be manifested in his vision. As the drunks charged him he easily dispatched them. As he finished them, one extra-large drunk with a huge axe approached him, clearly the leader. “Yo ho ho,” Rad said under his breath.

                Over with Zorro, he was still in the Fortune’s masts. He drew both his rapier, composing himself. He swung one of his rapiers out to the side and it split into sections along a cord becoming a whip. He whipped it into the other ship’s mast and swung into the brigs rigging landing on one of the yards. Some of the drunks still managed to maintain a sense of balance and charged across the beam at him. As the drunk slashed his sword at Zorro he vanished in a cloud of smoke, appearing behind the thug and stabbed him. As the drunk fell from the beam, another charged down the yard towards Zorro. As he slashed, Zorro caught the blade on his rapier guiding the blade off course as he converted the other to its pistol form and shot him. Two more sailors dropped down on either side of Zorro and charged. Zorro teleported into the air above them, and they ran into each other. The two fell off the beam as Zorro landed perfectly where he was previously standing.

                Oralie jumped out of a hatch onto the deck. As she ran to the edge of the ship, two glyphs with key designs formed on her feet. She jumped and flew into the air over to the other ship, far farther than she should be able to jump. As she flew through the air she drew her key sword. She drew a glyph at the base of the blade and it glowed bright gold. As she came down she slammed the key into the deck sending out a shockwave knocking back several drunken sailors. She spun and struck another drunk, then opened the key into its railgun form and blasted a few more sailors, each shot leaving a bright trail of golden light behind them. As another group of sailors charged her she drew a glyph on the ground in front of them. As the sailors stepped onto glyph they became lock down to the deck making them easy targets for Oralie’s attacks. As another group charged Oralie pointed her railgun at them. 3 glyphs formed one in front of the other at the end of the gun and she pulled the trigger. As the shot hit each glyph, it expanded and engulfed the sailors as the blast flew off the side of the brig and made a decent sized crater in a nearby mountain.

                Finally Cheshire jumped over to the brig, fur coat and all. Her sleeves roll back a ways but not far enough to expose her hands, only to reveal three kukri knives with perpendicular handles out of each sleeve like claws. She began to slash through sailors. In a matter of minutes team ROOC had clobbered all the drunks. Just as the large axe wielder Rad had been fighting fell, he put the tip off his sword to the captain’s throat. “Let me make something clear, never mess with a Hook or his crew,” Rad said as he looked through his hook hand. “Let’s go guys!” he called to his team. They all jumped back to the Red Fortune and they detached from the brig. “Yo Oralie, sink em,” Rad said from the wheel. As they sailed away from the brig Oralie pointed her railgun at the ship and five glyphs formed in front on the barrel. She pulled the trigger and a huge blast flew out striking the brig through the middle. Small fires broke out across the brig as it slowly fell to the ground below, not fast but steadily. “Let’s get out of here,” Rad said as he turned the ship towards the entrance to the mountain range. “Hey what was with that ‘we are gonna die,’ bit?” Weiss asked. “Didn’t I here that line in some naval movie?” Matt asked. “What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good one- liner,” Rad answered.

                After they entered the range Rad found a nice cove and dropped anchor. Everyone convened in the tavern to go over the past day. “Alright, so what did we get out of this whole fiasco?” Lulu asked. “A hull full of holes that’s what,” Zorro said sarcastically as he put his feet up. “Ruby you may want to spend some time on the gunnery simulation program on the gun controls. You could use a bit of practice on your aim,” Oralie said. “So we got nothing,” Lulu said unhappily. “I wouldn’t say that,” Rad said as he cracked open a beer at the bar. Everyone looked to him as he sat down with the others. “What do you mean?” Ruby asked. “A guy in that tavern said referred to our target as ‘that cat’ which can mean only one thing,” Rad said. “What does that mean?” Yang asked. “It can only mean one thing, Blaine Calico,” Rad said. “Who is this guy? You mentioned him back in the tavern,” Matt asked. “He’s a sky pirate that’s been working around the coast of Vacuo,” Rad said. “How did you get that name from cat?” Pyrrha asked. “He’s a cat faunus. His signature is a dagger strapped to the end of his tail. That thing’s more articulate than most peoples’ hands,” Rad said. “I remember this guy now. Wait, last I heard, he… he was cooling his claws in a Vacuo prison,” Zorro said. “Well remember prison in Vacuo is practically a time out. No one spends more than maybe a few months in one before either breaking out, the case against them falls apart, or they bribe their way out,” Rad said and he popped to his feet. “Look we know who we’re dealing with now. I know the operating methods of every sky pirate of the past hundred years, and once better I’ve chased this guy before. Somebody get me a map,” Rad said. Cheshire cleared off a table and unfurled a map of the mountain range. Everyone surrounded the map and Radcliff started going over the map. “Alright so factoring in altitude, access points for ships, geography of the area and there,” Rad said as he pointed at a spot on the map.

                Two days later they reached the point Rad had specified on the map. “I don’t get it, it’s a dead end,” Jaune said. Rad spun the wheel pointing the ship towards a wall of rock. “Hey what are you doing?!” Jaune demanded to know. Everyone braced themselves for impact when the unthinkable happened; the ship went straight through the cliff side. “What the?” Yang asked. “We’re close. Calico’s semblance allows him to make mirages. He uses them to manipulate ships. His usual practice is make ships think there’s a wall where there isn’t one and steer into dead ends. If I read him right this should be the spot he would lie in wait,” Rad said. “So what do we do now?” Matt asked. “We wait,” Rad said.

                So they waited. They sat around anchored, waiting for Calico. Down in the weapons control room, Oralie was helping Ruby and Coco sharpen their skills with the cannons. Blake was reading as usual, Narco and Zorro were patching some holes in the hull from the ship’s last fight, and the others were having a video game tourney in the tavern. Up on the bridge Cheshire, Nora, and Yang were on helm duty. “I am so bored,” Nora complained. “We’re fishing. We have to be patient,” Cheshire said. Suddenly the radar began to beep. Cheshire looked over to see a ping on the map. She grabbed one of the communication tubes saying into it, “Guys I think we got a bite.” Everybody scrambled to their positions.

                Rad steered the ship into a corner so any ship coming through the mirage couldn’t see the Red Fortune. They put out all the lights and made sure all the engines are off so they couldn’t be detected. Everybody sat tense as another ship similar in design to the Red Fortune passed through the mirage. Rad popped out a spy glass and looked at the other ship’s flag. It was a black flag with a cat shaped skull and nine crossed swords. “Yep, it’s Blaine’s ship, the Striped Tide, let’s get ’em. All hands, prepare for combat,” he ordered as he put away his spy glass. They opened the sails and the ship advanced on Calico’s ship. “Ruby, let’s try this again,” Rad said. Ruby aimed at the enemy ship. “Ready,” she said. “Alright, Oralie give me a warning shot across the bow,” Rad ordered. “Cheshire, take the wheel.” Rad grabbed a megaphone and stepped to the edge of the deck. “Warning shot ready,” Oralie said. “Fire,” Rad ordered. One of the turrets fired a shot across the Striped Tide’s bow. Rad brought the megaphone to his mouth and yelled to the other ship. “Blaine Calico, cut your engines and prepare to be boarded, in the name of deputized member of Vale law enforcement!” “You’re a deputized member of Vale law enforcement?” Matt asked him. “I’m a deputized privateer in all four kingdoms. If I wasn’t, everything we’ve done in the past few days is piracy and we’d be in chains,” Rad said.

                Suddenly the ship shook. The Striped Tide had begun firing on them. “Chum it!” Rad cursed and took the wheel from Cheshire. “Starboard cannons fire!” he ordered. Coco fired her cannons at the Striped Tide catching it in the back end of the ship. Rad circled around. “Ruby, fire!” Ruby fired her cannons and by dumb luck, hit one of the ship’s engine pods. The Striped Tide turned and tried to escape. Rad turned the ship to chase them. They followed the enemy ship out of the dead end and into the maze work of mountains. As they chased the Striped Tide they fired their chase cannons in an attempt to slow them down to no avail. “This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Ruby said. “You’re right,” Oralie admitted. She grabbed the communication tube to talk to Radcliff. “Rad this isn’t working. We need a new plan.” “Need a new plan. Need a new plan,” Smee squawked. “Ugh, Cheshire get on the horn and call Cherry. See if she can get her to set up a bottle neck,” Rad ordered. “On it,” Cheshire said as she jumped into a hatch. “Chase guns, fire just off their port side!” Rad ordered. Oralie fired the forward guns to the enemy ship’s left side. The Striped Tide turned to the right to avoid the incoming fire down another path in the mountains. “Someone run down to my cabin and grab the map on the table,” Rad ordered. “On it!” Weiss said as she dashed off the bridge. She dashed back a minute later with a large rolled up map. “Got it,” she said. “Good. Hold it up for me,” Rad requested. Weiss and Pyrrha took opposite ends of the large map and held it open for Rad. He gave the map a looking over. “Alright Oralie, fire on his starboard side,” he ordered. The chase cannons fired again and the Striped Tide was driven to the left. “What are we doing?” Oralie asked. “Steering them into a trap,” Rad said as he took another look at the map. “Chase guns along the starboard side again. Cheshire popped out of a hatch and said, “one ‘Cherry bombing’ ready.” “Cherry bomb ready! Cherry bomb ready!” Smee squawked.

                Rad strategically guided the Striped Tide through a several more turns. “Alright we’re almost there,” Rad said. “Ruby, load high explosive rounds and be ready,” Rad ordered. Ruby loaded the rounds and steadied herself. “Ready she said. “Chase guns, along the starboard side,” he ordered. The Striped Tide steered away from the shots and down another path in the mountains, right out of the mountain range and towards Peaks West. Rad turned to follow. “Alright, now just keep firing and drive them forward,” Rad said. The Striped Tide exited the mountain range followed by the Red Fortune. Rad tossed Matt a flare gun. “Do it,” Rad told him. Matt pointed the flare gun towards the sky and fired. As the flare flew skyward they could hear cannon fire in the distance and cannon rounds rained down on the Striped Tide. The fort at Peaks West was firing at the Striped Tide. “What’s going on? I thought that fort was abandoned,” Pyrrha said. “Technically it is, but there is a small group in town that keeps the fort in working order in case the they need to protect the town from attack by Grimm. A friend of mine in town, Cherry, is a high ranking member of this group.” Rad said. “I thought she was a barmaid,” Matt said. “That’s her day job,” Rad said. “Side kick,” Rad said as he threw the wheel to the side and pulled a set of levers. The pivot thrusters fired and the ship spun, still moving towards the enemy ship so the port side was aimed towards the target. “Ruby, fire!” Rad ordered. Ruby lined up her shot and fired. This time she didn’t miss, every shot hit the Striped Tide. Small secondary explosions broke out across the enemy ship as cannon shells began to detonate. The Striped Tide came to a stop and the engines gave out.

                “Alright me hearties, prepare to board!” Rad called out to everyone. “Prepare to board! Prepare to board!” Smee squawked. Did you really just use the old ‘me hearties’ line?” Ruby asked as she popped out of a hatch. “”I stand by my authenticity. Now I want everyone to take care of the crew, leave Blaine to me, and whatever you do, don’t let them near the wheel and magazine,” Rad said as he brought the Red Fortune along the side of the Striped Tide. The Members of team ROOC jumped to the deck of the enemy ship followed by team MRLN. They all began blowing through pirates. As they slashed through the pirates, Rad and Cheshire were fighting their way specifically to the bridge of the enemy ship. As they stepped on to the bridge they saw their target: Blaine Calico.

                He was about 25, with long messy brown hair to his shoulders with several small braids on one side. He wore an orange bandana around his head under a black three point hat with an orange feather. He had a dark off white shirt under an orange vest and a black bandana tied around his left arm. His pants were black with frayed ends and he had brown cuffed boots. He had a brown leather belt and chest strap holding a leather spraulder to his right shoulder as well as holding his weapons, two swords on each hip and nine flintlock like pistols on his back hips, shoulders, back, and chest. Finally he had a long thin cat tail with a dagger strapped to the end.  

                “Well, well, well… if it isn’t _the_ Radcliffe Hook. Still anchored on the cheap end of the island of sailing, I see. When are you going to realize my way is more profitable? Your ancestors sailed that way,” Blaine said, blatantly insulting Rad. “And I see you brought a precious little kitten with you. Hey kitty, care to sail with real sailor?” he said flirting with Cheshire. She hissed a little as her ears pointed back, displaying her distaste and her claw knives popped out of her sleeves. Rad held up his arm in front of her to calm her. “Still the same old stink sack of fish guts, I see,” Rad said as he drew his falchion. He pointed the end of the sword at Calico and demanded, “Surrender and I can assure your safety.” Like lightning Blaine drew one of his pistols and took a shot at Rad who just managed to dodge it, the bullet just grazing his cheek. “That’s my answer!” Blaine said as he reloaded the gun and holstered it. He drew two of his cutlasses and charged them.

                Rad saw the attack coming and drew his falchion, blocking the slash of the first sword. And side stepped around Blaine as he drew his dagger and tried to stab him. Blaine drop under Rad’s sword and slashed again with both swords. Rad caught the cutlasses on his sword and Cheshire made her move. She dropped her claw knives out of her sleeves and slashed at his back. Blaine force Rad back letting go of his cutlasses. He spun around ducking under Cheshire’s claws and drawing a pistol. He pointed it at Cheshire and fired. She reeled back as Blaine flipped the gun over and pistol whipped her, knocking her over the side. “Cheshire!” Rad yelled.

                Now he was ticked. He converted his dagger to pistol form and fired as he charged at Blaine. The cat pirate dodged as he drew two pistols and fired back. Rad’s semblances activate, he saw phantom images of the incoming shots and dodged one of the incoming shots while deflecting the other away with his falchion. Blaine drew another of his cutlasses and blocked Rad’s slash as he pulled another pistol and fired forcing him back. He dropped the pistol and stabbed the cutlass into the deck as he drew two new pistols and fired knocking rad back further. He dropped the pistols as he approached the recovering red pirate and picked up the pair of cutlasses he had dropped earlier. “Sorry Hook. Guess you just ain’t the pirate your ancestors were,” Blaine said as he raised the swords about to finish off his foe.

                Suddenly, Cheshire’s kukri knives claws flew through the air, catching in the hand guards off Blaine’s cutlasses. The swords flew out of Blaine’s hands and were spiked into the ship’s wheel, hanging like they were on display. He looked to the source of the knives to see Cheshire standing on the railing along the back of the ship. “How?!” Blaine demanded to know. “You of all people should know Blaine, cats have nine lives,” she answered smugly. Blaine charged at Cheshire as he drew his one remaining cutlass and slashed at her but she just seem to disappear in a puff of purple and pink smoke. Blaine looked around trying to make sense of what just happened. “What the… Your cheap trick won’t work on me. Face the reality. You can’t beat me” he said. “Use your imagination,” he heard behind him. He turned to see Cheshire. “After all, imagination is the only weapon against reality,” she said. He charged and slashed at her again only for her to dissipate into the same purple and pink smoke. “You’re crazy!” Blaine yelled as he looked around for her. “I’m not crazy. My Reality is just different than yours” she said showing up behind him again. He slashed her again and again she vanished into smoke. “Your mad!” he said. “Everyone here is mad, you may have noticed I’m not all here myself,” she said behind him disappearing just as he turned to see her. “However…” He spun to see her and his jaw dropped. Nine identical voices rang out, “Maybe _we’re_ all here after all.” It was unbelievable, before him stood nine perfect replicas of Cheshire. “I don’t believe this,” Blaine said. “It doesn’t matter…” one of the copies said. “If you believe me…” another said picking up where the last left off. “Or not…” said another. “But common sense doesn’t really work with me,” another finished. Blaine was angry. He threw his cutlass as a rope severing it and triggering a complex mechanism in the ship. After a second or two of clicking and clanging a weapons rack containing dozens of pistols and swords quickly rose out of the deck. One by one he grabbed pistols off the rack and started firing at the copies of Cheshire. One by one they vanished into smoke until he reached the one at the center of the lineup. As the shot was about to hit her there was a puff of smoke and the sound of a shotgun shell going off. As it cleared they could see Cheshire’s fur coat fell from where she was standing, draping itself over the helm.

                Blaine looked up to see Cheshire flying through the air with a drum magazine style shotgun in hand. Without her coat it was possible to see what Cheshire actually looked like. She wore a white long sleeve shirt with pink tiger stripes under a purple sleeveless shirt, a purple and pink ruffled skirt, purple and pink striped thigh high socks, and purple and white sneakers. Finally she had a pink choker around her neck with a large bow on the back side of it and her fluffy tail waving free.

                She aimed her shotgun at Blaine and fired of several shells in quick succession both to try and hit Blaine as well as forcing her higher in the air. Blaine rolled out of the way and drew new pistols from the rack, firing at her. She pointed her shotgun behind her and fired, forcing her out of the path of the shots but towards the edge of the ship. Before she could fly off the ship, she converted her gun into a yoyo like form, and whipped it out the yoyo on its cable and it dug into the deck, reeling her back onto the deck. The yoyo wound back into its cradle and she whipped it out again towards Blaine, this time razor sharp blades extending out from it. Blaine drew his last sword and deflected the razor yoyo, but when it struck the sword it triggered several shotgun shells went off in multiple directs two of them struck Blaine, and Cheshire reeled back in the yoyo.

                Suddenly another shot rang out knocking Blaine’s hat off. They looked to see Rad had recovered somewhat and had taken a shot at him with his sword rifle. He took another shot and Blaine dodged it. Blaine created a mirage of a wall in front of him for cover, but Cheshire whipped her yoyo across dissipating it, and Rad charged him. Blaine tumbled out of the way and grabbed the cutlass he had stabbed into the deck and took a defensive stance. Rad charged and slashed at Blaine a few times which the feline pirate managed to block before backing off and letting Cheshire take a few cuts with her yoyo’s blades. Blaine jumped back and stabbed his cutlasses into the deck, grabbing another pistol pair of pistols and firing at them. Rad blocked the two shots against his sword as Cheshire leap frogged over him and whipped out her yoyo at Blaine. He held up the guns to block the incoming yoyo and was knocked back against the helm as he dropped the pistols.

                Blaine shook his head bringing himself back to reality and noticed the pair of cutlasses stuck in the wheel under his arm. He grabbed the swords by the handles and tore them free, pulling Cheshire’s kukri knives out with them. He slashed at Rad, was blocked, and then slashed with the other. He slashed several more times before he ducked under Rad’s sword as he spun whipping his tail around to stab his tail blade into him, but saw it coming and deflected the tail dagger with his own as he swept his leg under Blaine but he jumped over them and tried to slash down on Rad. Had caught the blade on his falchion’s hand guard and forced Blaine Back as he punched the cat pirate in the stomach using his sword’s hand guard like brass knuckles.

                Rad and Cheshire traded out and she began her assault. She fired a series of rounds, hammering him up against the helm and then converted it to its yoyo form. She whipped it out, striking the swords out of Blaine’s hands. He drew a pistol and was about to shoot at her but she whipped that one out of his hand too. He reached for another weapon but he only found he had used all his weapons and they were all out of reach. Cheshire whipped out the yoyo again and it circled around him over and over, binding Blaine to the wheel, after which the yoyo returned to its cradle and the cable disconnected as a new one attached in its place. He struggled a bit but gave up when he realized he wasn’t getting out of the steel cable of the yoyo’s cord.

                As he gave up on struggling he looked around. Blaine saw his crew of pirates, all either tied up, unconscious, or being held at gun point by one of the potential huntsmen and huntresses that had forcibly boarded his ship. “This makes no sense, I can’t believe this, you people are mad!” he griped. “Like I said before,” Cheshire began to say as she picked up her coat from the helm. She slung the coat over her shoulder and faced Blaine bringing her face real close to his. “It doesn’t matter if you believe it, but common sense doesn’t really work with me. Your mad, I’m mad, we’re all MAD here,” she said with a smile. “Well said, now why don’t you tell us where all the stuff you’ve stolen is?” Rad asked Blaine as he leaned against the wheel with a smug smirk on his face. Smee flew down from above and landed on Radcliffe’s shoulder squawking, “Stuff you stole! Stuff you stole!” “Not happening you one handed poser!” Blaine snapped. “Well he is mad, just in case you’re not _mad_ enough…” Rad took the spoke of the helm and pulled hard, sending Blaine spinning, his hat flying off.

                As Blaine spun around screaming, the others came up to the bridge to see the sight. “What the heck is going on?” Weiss asked. Rad grabbed the spokes and stopped the wheel, with Blaine upside down. “You crazy yet?” Cheshire asked the dizzy pirate. He spat at the deck. “I think that’s a no,” Cheshire said and she gave the wheel another spin. “Rad stop playing with the bad guy,” Matt said. “We’re not playing with him, we’re questioning him,” Rad said as he stopped the wheel again, this time Blaine at an angle but his head up. Suddenly he threw up. “Ok maybe we’re playing with him a little,” he said as he gave him another spin. “This is inhumane!” Ruby said. “This is pirate justice,” Zorro said. “Rad why are you doing this?” Matt asked. “Because keelhauling doesn’t work without water,” Rad said sarcastically. “Rad!” Matt said sternly. “We’re trying to get him to give up what he did with everything he stole,” Cheshire said. Rad stopped the wheel with Blaine upside down again. “No more, please, I’ll talk,” Blaine surrendered. Rad turned him back right side up.

                Matt stepped forward. “Alright Calico, where are the ships you raided recently. “Sitting at the bottom of canyons all over the Great Vale Mountains, in pieces,” Blaine said. “Survivors?” Matt asked. “possibly,” he answered cryptically. “Do you want to go for another spin?” Rad asked Blaine sadistically. “No! No! Look after we crippled the ships we rounded up all the crew and make them move all the cargo onto our ship. After that we lock them in a room with a special time lock and we cripple the gravity dust system. The ship floats down to the ground and the lock releases. After that they’re on their own,” Blaine explained. Matt was angry. He dropped a knife out of his sleeve and stabbed it into the wheel just under Blaine’s ear. “You left all those innocent men to fend for themselves in those Grimm infested mountains?!” “Wait if you you’ve been letting these ships safely lower to the ground, why are we not seeing intact ships all over the canyon floors amongst all the wrecks?” Oralie asked. Blaine groaned, “I put one huge mirage over every ship.” “Yeah right, your semblance can’t possibly last that long,” Matt said. “I can keep them going as long as I want and the only way you can tell they’re there is if you hit one,” Blaine said. “Alright then, drop them,” Matt said. Blaine closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “Done, there’s a few maps in my cabin marking all the points I attacked ships,” Blaine said.

                “Alright, then where is all the cargo. With all the ships you’ve attacked, there is no way all the cargo you’ve stolen is on this ship?” Rad asked. “I don’t know,” Blaine answered. Cheshire brandished one of her kukris. “WOAH, WOAH, WOAH, easy tabby cat!” Blaine yelled trying to calm Cheshire down. “Look after every ship I raided was stripped and dropped; I would take the goods to a drop point and leave them there. Then the next time I went to off load more cargo, the last shipment was gone,” Blaine explained. “Where is the drop sight?” Rad demanded. “13 south by 17 west, in the wreck of an old Atlas cruiser.” Rad and Cheshire backed off holstering their weapons.

                “Alright, Oralie take some kids with you and through this stray in the brig. Zorro go search his cabin for those maps. Everyone else, make sure we got all the crew detained,” Rad ordered and he turned to Matt. “Call Ozpin and tell him we got the pirates, and tell Ironwood to send out some ships to look for survivors and check that drop site.” “We aren’t going to go ourselves?” Ruby asked. “We aren’t in any shape for it,” Rad said gesturing to his ship damaged ship. “Unfortunately our rudder got clipped in the battle. With that damage we don’t have the necessary maneuverability to get through the mountains again. We’d be at the bottom of canyon before we reached any of them. Plus they clipped our reactor’s fuel tank so we won’t be able to use the engines either until we have it looked over at a shipyard. We’re going to have to limp back to Vale one sails alone,” Rad explained as he rubbed his temple, destressed by the state of his prized ship.

                “Don’t worry kitten,” Cheshire said reassuringly as she come up behind Ruby. “The Atlas Military may have some questionable recruitment methods but they do their jobs well enough. We just have to trust them to get it done,” she said as she ruffled Ruby’s hair. The girls look at Cheshire and finally registered she wasn’t wearing her coat but instead was holding it over her shoulder. “Hey you’re not wearing your coat,” Yang said. “I don’t wear it when I use Mad Imagination,” she said patting her shotgun yoyo. “The coats a little restrictive and I need my shoulder free to swing out the yoyo better.” “Hey what was with those copies of you?” Blake asked. “They’re just projections made by my semblance. They can’t do any damage but they’re good for screwing with people,” she answered. Cheshire stretched out as she said, “Well it’s going to take us longer to get home than it did to get here now that we can’t use the engines. Come on let’s get things together and get the old tub ready to sail.” “What are you calling and old tub?!” Rad screamed out.

                The next few days were uneventful. Now that the mission was over, sailing the Red Fortune was a lot more fun. The students all started to get into character. They all started tying bandanas on their heads and strapping on eye patches. They would swing through the riggings, even barrowing cutlasses for mock pirate fights, and of course talking like pirates. The ship had turned into an all-out party ship and everyone was practically a child again, even the adults got in on the fun.

                After a few days the Red Fortune pulled up to the landing pads at Beacon. The gang plank extended, plopped down on the docks, and everyone walked off the ship dragging Blaine along with them. All the students were still in character of pirates making jokes and talking like pirates. “Move it you scurvy dog!” Jaune said as he shoved Blaine a little to get him to move. “I’m a cat,” Blaine corrected him. Ozpin, Goodwitch, Ironwood, and Razor meet them at the landing pad along with the four dogs. Zwei jumped up on Ruby while Matt was tackled to the deck by his own dogs. “Down boys!” Matt ordered the dogs but they didn’t stop. “Down boys! Down boys!” squawked Rad’s parrot. That’s it, Matt had had enough of this bird. “Hey boys, fetch the bird!” he told the dogs. They stopped licking him and looked to the parrot. The birds heart dropped as the dogs charged, trying to jump up over Rad’s shoulder and get the bird but Smee managed do flap out of the way and flew down the landing platform towards the school followed by the dogs.

                “So I take it your mission was a success,” Ozpin said. Zorro grabbed Blaine by the arm and shoved him in front of the headmasters. “Calico Blaine, sky pirate lowlife and the guy who has been taking out ships in the Great Vale Mountains,” Rad said. Ironwood nodded towards the cat pirate and two of his robot guards pull the criminal to his feet and they dragged him away. “What’s going to happen to him?” Blake asked. “Well as memory serves, Calico is supposed to be in a cell in Vacuo. He’ll most likely be extradited to Vacuo and charged there,” Rad said. “I’ll see to it he finds himself in a cell but it will be in a fortified Atlas prison. Calico is wanted by the Atlas military as well for attacking our merchant vessels. I assure you he will not get out of an Atlas prison as easily as he got out of one in Vacuo.  Now if you would excuse me,” Ironwood excused himself and left to deal with the criminal.

                “Well it appears you had your fun with your mission,” Ozpin said. The students realized they were all still in their pirate mindset and started moving to take off their pirate accessories when Ozpin held up a hand signaling there was no need. “Now no need for that. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying you work,” Ozpin said. The students relaxed and stopped taking off their eyepatches. “You’ve done good work assisting on this mission, so enjoy yourselves, take the rest of the week off and decompress. You can return to normal classes Monday,” Ozpin said and he and Goodwitch left.

                “So where are you guys going now?” Yang asked team ROOC. “Well with the damage we got, we aren’t going too far. We’re going to put in at a small time shipyard here in Vale so we’ll be around for a bit,” Rad said. “Well if you guys are going to be in town for a while, there’s no reason you can’t speak in class,” Matt said. Rad groaned, “Well I guess I walked into that one.”

* * *

 

                A week later Blaine Calico was being transported to an Atlas Prison. He was put on a small Atlas military transport destine for one of the military nation’s highest security prisons. He was sitting in a small cell about the ship bound for Atlas when it began to shake violently. As he sat up from his hard metal cot Blaine could hear screaming outside. “Hull breach, we’re being boarded!” He heard gunshots from the Atlas knights, the slash of blades and arrows flying. Then everything went silent. Suddenly his cell door began to glow and it melted away into slag. Standing there was a sharply dressed young woman Cinder Fall. “Blaine Calico?” she asked. He nodded. He mouth curled into a devilish smile and said, “I have a proposition for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on team ROOC go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-ROOC-654687052  
> For more information on Blaine Calico go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Blaine-Calico-654903845


	12. Guiding Star of the Gangster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While attending a formal concert Matt, Ringo, and the RWBY girls end up in the middle of a hostage situation that ends with the kidnapping of the wife of a major gangster. Now they have to find the gangster's wife, stop, a gang war and keep the gangster's hot tempered huntress daughter from taking their heads off in the process.

 

                One thing about Ruby is that she hates wearing formal wear, and when Weiss decided to drag team RWBY to a black tie concert, she was not a happy huntress. Each of the four girls were wearing there dresses from the school dance as they all filed out of the cab, and Ruby stumble in her heels. “woah!” she said as she balanced herself out. “Weiss, how the heck do you fight in these?” she asked her partner. “Practice, now come on we don’t want to miss the opening introductions,” Weiss said. “Well just point me to the snack bar,” Ruby said. “This isn’t that kind of concert Ruby,” Blake said.

                “Yeah Ruby we’re not going to a Misty Key’s concert. We’re going to a Vale Philharmonic concert and this is the Great Vale Theater,” Weiss said as she gestured to the building in front of them. The Great Vale Theater, it was a huge building in a 18th century English architectural design with many steps up to the entrance. The girls scurried up the steps, Ruby tripping half a dozen times and entered the lobby. It was a large multi leveled room with curved stair cases, red carpets, cream paint, and gold trim work.

                As soon as they entered, the girls separated. Weiss made small talk with various business men her father had dealing with, while Blake and Yang went in search of a waiter with horderves. The lobby was full of classical music enthusiast, pillars of the community, and various other old farts. Needless to say Ruby felt out of place. Ruby stumbled around the lobby looking for something of interest to her. She tripped up a few times, often being helped by some kindly gentleman. She continued on until she saw a well-dressed young man she thought she recognized.  He wore a black tuxedo with a green vest, bowtie, and pocket square. His blonde hair was cleanly combed but it was him, it was Matt.

                “Matt is that you?” she asked him. Matt turned around to acknowledge her. “Rosebud, what are you doing here?” Matt asked her. “Weiss decided to drag us to this show. I am SO bored. Why are you here?” she asked. “An old friend of ours is part of the performance,” Ringo said as she joined them carrying a couple of drinks for her and Matt. She was also dress much different than normal. She wore a blue full length dress with a slit and heels. “Dang, you clean up nice, both of you,” Yang said as she, Blake, and Weiss joined them. “A huntsman must be able to blend into any environment,” he joked. “So are Lulu and Narco here?” Ruby asked. Matt and Ringo laughed a little. “Those two aren’t exactly people of high culture. The went to some horror flick, something about a possessed muscle car,” Matt said. A low bell chimed, signaling for people to take their seats.

                Matt, Ringo, and the girls enter the main theater. Matt and Ringo originally had average seats but Weiss had reserved a whole private balcony that seated eight so they joined them. The lights in the seating area dimmed and the musicians began to file onto the stage. “So what’s so special about this concert again?” Ruby whispered. “They’re having a guest conductor. Apparently she does this special light show that goes in tandem with the music,” Weiss said.

                The announcer came over the loud speaker, “On behalf of the Vale Philharmonic, we would like to thank you for your attendance of this special performance, and now our special guest conductor Starr Orion.” A spot light aimed at the side of the stage and a young blonde woman with some of her hair in a ponytail and the rest free stepped out. She wore a blue midriff bustier with gold detail, a slightly darker blue sleeveless tailcoat with gold detail, gold armlets with blue flared sleeves, a dark blue skirt, blue stockings, and brown low calf boots. Around her waist was a belt with several silver tubes, a pair of star earrings, and the hair tie on her ponytail had a star on it. She walked up to the conductor’s podium, bowed to the audience, and turned to the band. She reached into her right flared sleeve and pulled out a conductor’s baton.

                She tapped her podium to calm the orchestra and began. As the music started Ruby quickly began to get bored with the classical music. Then small orbs of light like stars began to float out of the capsules on her belt and began to dance around the air in sequence to the music. Every so often the stars would align and lines of light would form creating images. The show continued for another hour and then came to an end. Starr turned to the audience and bowed along with the other musicians as the crowd threw roses on the stage as they applauded.

                “I’ll admit that was pretty cool,” Yang said. “And the conductor is so young,” Blake added. “Care to meet her?” Ringo offered. “For the love of dust, is there any famous person you don’t know?” Weiss asked. “Just the ones that attended Beacon in the past eight years,” Matt said. The six of them returned to the lobby and found their way to the conductor.

                They politely pushed their way through the crowd and found Starr holding a bouquet of blue rose and speaking with a young man. He had slicked back dark red hair, a black dress shirt, pants, and dress shoes as well as a red suit jacket and a loose red tie. His most interesting feature was a pair of down pointed black goat horns with one of them broken off as well as his red eyes.  

                “Beautifully done as always Starr,” the young man said. “Thank you Lucian,” Starr said. “You still got the touch,” they heard behind them and looked to see Matt and Ringo. “Matt, Ringo what are you guys doing here?!” Starr said happily. She tossed up the bouquet which Lucian barely managed to catch and she hugged the two of them. “Paying our respects to a great artist, good to see you again,” Matt said. “Matt, Ringo,” Lucian said acknowledging them. “Lucian, still cold as brimstone I see,” Matt said as they shook hands. “Only to those who I’m pointing my gun at,” Lucian said amused. Matt gestured his fingers at the left side of his face referring to Lucian’s face. “What’s with the eye?” he asked inferring there was something wrong with his perfectly good eye. “It creeps out these high society types. I find it best not to cause a panic,” Lucian said. “Did Lulu and Narco come too?” Starr asked. “You know as well as I do they are not the type to come to this sort of thing,” Ringo said. “Guys I’d like you to meet a few of my latest students, this is Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang,” Matt said introducing the girls. “Girls, meet Starr Orion and Lucian Tartarus the Leader and member of team STAR,” Matt said.

                They all stood there talking for a while when a group of sharply dressed thugs similar to Junior’s marched in armed to the teeth. Matt noticed them just before they stepped in. “Oh no, everybody in here,” he said as he quickly herded his friends into small side hall and out of sight. “What’s going on?” Ruby whispered. “Everybody on the ground!” one of the thugs yelled. Everyone in the lobby hit the ground trying not to get hurt by the thugs. “What do we do?” Yang asked. “You…” Matt said gesturing to Ringo and team RWBY, “Are getting outside.” “You’re kicking us out of the action?” Ruby asked disappointedly. “No you need to get outside so your rocket lockers can reach you and Ringo can get her weapon out of Eligos in the parking lot,” he answered. “Problem is I can’t fight in these shoes,” Ruby argued. “That’s why I slipped an extra set of your boots in your locker for just such an occasion,” he said. “Starr,” Lucian said getting her attention. They hadn’t noticed that he had snuck off for a few seconds. He had come back carrying some form of red weapon as well as a belt of capsules that he handed to Starr. “Alright Ringo take the girls outside, get them armed, and get our weapons. Star, Lucian, and I will distract the thugs,” Matt said. “Matt, you’re not armed,” Blake argued. Matt took off his bowtie and tuxedo jacket revealing a pair of shoulder holsters and, pulling out his knife pistols. “You brought guns to Starr’s concert?” Lucian asked in disappointment. “I bring guns everywhere,” Matt said. He took a quick look around the corner to survey the Lobby.

                “Alright, it looks like they’ve pushed all the people up against the far wall. Lucian can you separate them?” Matt asked as they planned. “Like light from darkness,” he answered as he converted his weapon Lucifer’s Rain from its compact form to a sniper rifle. “Alright as soon as Lucian takes his shot break for the door, Starr and I will cover you,” Matt said. “Do you want me to bring Storm Reaper?” Ringo asked. “Just leave the door open on the way out,” Matt said.

                Lucian messed up his hair so it was spiked out, took off his jacket leaving it on the ground and loosened his tie. Finally he looked to the ceiling and removed a white contact lense. He then ran his hand over the left side of his face wiping off some sort of makeup. “Make up?’ Blake asked. Lucian turned to the girls to reveal the truth. The sclera of his left eye was black as night and black crack like makes ran from the side of his eye past his ear, down his cheek, and down his neck. He also rolled up his sleeves revealing the same crack like markings on his left arm. “What the dust?” Blake asked. “It’s a long story,” Lucian said as he opened the bolt to let a round into the chamber but before he closed it he drew a small black glyph that bonded itself around the projectile and closed the bolt. “What’s he doing?” Weiss asked. “You’ll appreciate this Weiss. Lucian has a glyph semblance,” Matt said. Lucian swung around the corner aiming for the wall and fire. The round struck the wall transplanting its glyph to it and a wall of solid black stone rocketed out of the glyph separating the civilians from the thugs. The thugs turned to see the source of the strange stone to see Starr, Matt, and Lucian stepping out. “Get them,” the lead thug said and they charged.

                Starr drew her baton and several of her stars floated out of the capsules on her belt and began to orbit her. She waved her baton and two of the bolt flew out striking down two goons. Ringo and Team RWBY dashed outside, dragging Ruby along as she couldn’t run in her heels. Matt charged them firing his pistols to take out a couple of goons as he leaped over them and slashed a couple more in the back. Lucian converted his sniper rifle, shortening the barrel into a semi-automatic rifle and he charged as well. He ducked under one of the goons trying to chop him with an axe. He converted his rifle to its broad sword form and slashed the thug. Matt drew a glyph, magnetically locked onto the thugs’ metal, and threw them in three different directions, separating them into groups easier for the three of them to deal with.

                Matt took on his group at close range with his knives, slashing and guarding as he fought. Although he was moving a little slower than usual as he was wearing dress clothes instead of his usual combat gear. Eventually one of his guns was knocked from his hand. He fell back a bit and took out his scroll, pressing an activation button on it. As Ringo was taking her Crooked Sprout out of the trunk of Matt’s muscle car, the turret in the truck rose out and aimed at the theater. The launcher charged and fired Matt’s scythe in its broadsword form into the theater. As Matt fought the thugs with his remaining knife one of the thugs fired his gun at him but just as the bullets were about to hit him in the back, Storm Reaper flew in front of him. He caught the sword by the handle, using its momentum to spin around and slash the bullets from the air and then convert to its full scythe form in one flawless movement. The goons took a second to register what had just happened as Matt said, “Come on, the shock doctor will see you now.”

                As Lucian fought his goons he drew one of his demon glyphs on the ground and a line of pillars of fire erupted taking out a few goons. He jumped over the downed thugs and forged another glyph and several illusions of him charged at the goons. They fired wild at the group of illusions hoping to hit the real one, only to discover he was behind them. He converted his sword turning it into a large crooked saw toothed scythe. He to one long swing and felled several goons. “You ever dance with the devil incarnated boys?” He slyly asked the goons.

                Over with Starr, she was dealing with her own thugs. She waved her baton and her stars bolted about, striking down goons. A couple of goons fired at her. She waved her baton and her stars moved into a circle. Lines of light energy interlocked the stars into a wireframe and a solid shield of light formed, blocking the shots. The stars separated and reconnected into bolos that she sent flying out to tie down a few more goons. She was starting to run out of stars and let out another dozen from her belt. She waved her baton again and the stars moved into formation around the baton forming a sword similar to a compass rose with the north point being the blade, the south the handle, and east and west being the hand guards. The goons with swords charged her. She waved her free hand activating her semblance and gravity lost its effect on the goons, making them float of the ground. She waved her hand again and gravity’s effects on her changed. She back flipped against the wall behind her and launched off it in a spinning motion, slashing through goons.

                All the goons regrouped realizing they were out gunned by just three hunters. They ran for it just as Ringo and team RWBY ran in the other door weapons in hand. They looked around to see the fight was over. “Oh man, we missed the fun,” Yang complained. Lucian drew a glyph on the wall of brimstone and the wall disintegrated. “Is everyone alright?” he asked the civilians. The police showed up a few minutes later, too little too late. Matt and the others answered the cops’ questions and they sat back in the lobby and relaxed. “Boy what a night,” Ringo said as she flopped down on one of the nice couches in the lobby. “I know. Why would a bunch of thugs want to attack a formal concert? A rock concert maybe but not the Vale Philharmonic?” Starr added.

                As they were talking, Matt overheard a couple of detectives talking behind him. “Well this is one heck of a mess,” one of the detectives said. “I’m more worried about the broad they took,” the other one said. “Oh yeah the red head. What was her name again?” “Apple I think someone said. I think she’s related to some gangster,” the detective said. “Apple Scar, as in the Wife of Don Scar, the head of the Scar crime family, that Apple Scar?” Matt asked not turning to face them. “Ah yeah that’s her,” the detective said. Matt looked to Ringo, Starr, and Lucian, all wide eyed in fear. Matt dialed his scroll and put it to his ear. “Narco its Matt, code ORANGE we’re going into hiding,” Matt said. He hung up the four of them ran out of the lobby like bats out of hell. Leaving the girls of team RWBY sitting there confused.

                The next day Ruby and the others couldn’t find Matt, Ringo, Lulu, or Narco. They walked over to the hanger as they searched only to find it closed and locked. Luckily Yang knew where Narco kept a spare key hidden and they went inside. It was dark and they could barely see anything. “Close that door!” they heard being yelled from further down the hanger. Suddenly Narco popped out of a shadow all squirrely looking, slammed the door locking it, and jumped back into the shadow. “What the heck?” Yang said in confusion. “Well we know that at least Narco is here but where,” Weiss said. “I think I know,” Yang said. She guided the others to the far end of the hanger under Narco’s loft and over to a set of chains hooked to the wall. “Put your foot through the bottom loop and hold onto the top loop. Then just pull the lever and hold on,” she said. As soon as they pulled their levers the four of them were pulled up to Narco’s loft and they stepped off to find a barricade of junk furniture. “What the dust?” Ruby said. The members of team MRLN as well as Starr and Lucian popped out from the top of the barricade.

                Lucian was dressed different from when they first met him. His red hair was messy like he had done when he was about to fight at the theater. He wore a dark red shirt under a blood red leather jacket with silver zippers and decorative detail that looked like rib bones done the left side of his torso. There was a goat skull hanging off his left shoulder with red decorative details and his emblem of a red sideways pentacle in the forehead. He had black pants, black and red boots, as well as a dark red shredded cape with a hood that wasn’t up at the moment.

                “What are you guys doing?” Ruby asked. “Hiding,” Matt said. “Why?” she asked. “Because those thugs kidnapped Apple Scar,” Narco said. “You mean the gangsters wife?” Blake asked. “Yeah the wife of Don Scar, head of the Scar crime family,” Matt said. “So your all afraid that this crime boss is going to come after you because you could have saved her?” Blake asked. “Not him,” Lucian said. “His daughter,” Starr added.

                Just then there was a banging at the hanger door then a large circular saw blade cut into the steel door, cutting a large opening in it. A young woman stepped into the dark hanger yelling, “MATT!” She had olive skin, short dark green hair with a single bang hanging down in her face under a black short brim fedora with and orange band. She wore a pair of sunglasses, a short sleeve white dress shirt with the shoulders cut out, a black vest with a loose short orange tie, a black pleaded back skirt, an orange belt, black shorts with orange cuffs ending just above the knees, black and white sneakers, and the emblem of a fedora over a pair of sunglasses tattooed on her shoulder. She converted her saw into a tommy gun style submachine gun and fired off several rounds into the ceiling screaming, “I know you guys are hiding in here!” she said as she walked into the center of the hanger.

                They pulled the girls behind the barricade and ducked down. “Dust! She here,” Ringo said in fear. “Calm down, we prepared for this,” Matt said. They all scattered to levers set up in the loft. Matt bolted into an outlet and came out behind the woman, his sword in hand. “Alaina Scar, if you wanted to see me you don’t need to tear a path of destruction across Vale,” Matt said jokingly. She was not amused. “Who is she?” Weiss asked. “Alaina ‘Al’ Scar, she’s Don Scar’s daughter and our teammate,” Lucian said. “Don’t call me that,” Alaina said to Matt. “Fine Al, what do you want?” Matt asked. “You let mia madre (my mother) get kidnapped. You’re going to pay,” she said.

                Al opened fire on Matt. He clicked his sword into its shield form and blocked the shots. “Lights,” Matt yelled. Starr hit the switch and the lights went on. Al converted her gun to a staff with the round ammo drum becoming buzz saws on each end. She charged swinging at Matt. He jumped back a ways in front of a crate. Al charged at him again. Narco pulled a lever and a giant fake ant popped out of the crate. Al scream in fear, jumping back a bit, and chopping the ant apart. She went back to attacking Matt who kept dodging and blocking Al’s attacks, never converting his shield back into a weapon. 

 

                “What the dust was that, a giant ant?” Weiss asked. “Al is one of the toughest girls to attend Beacon, but she has a few key weaknesses. For one she’s afraid of ants” Starr said. Al went after Matt chasing him to an oil drum. Again he dodged out of the way. “She also terrified of clowns,” Lucian told the girls as he pulled his lever and a scary clown head popped out of the oil drum scaring the dust out of Al. “She also hates getting noticeably dirty,” Lulu said throwing her lever and a catapult launched a pile of dirt at Al. She managed to dodge it. “Don’t forget blood, real or in this case fake,” Narco added. He pulled his lever and another catapult full of balloons full of highly realistic fake blood launched out, this time splattering all over Al. She screamed like a little girl in disgust. “And her most crippling fear, dolls,” Ringo said pulling a lever. Matt tackled Al with his shield pushing the fake blood coated girl onto a big red X on the ground. Suddenly a huge pile of dolls rained down burying her. She popped out of the pile screaming and then fainted.

                “Quick, tie her down and blindfold her,” Matt ordered. The others jumped down from Narco’s loft and began tying down Al. “Why are you tying her up?” Blake asked. “Because we need to let her run out of steam before we can talk to her. She’s impossible to talk to when she’s this angry,” Lucian said. “And the blindfold?” Yang asked. “It’s to block her semblance. Al can temporarily copy the semblance of anyone she makes direct eye contact with,” Starr answered.

                Al came to a few minutes later, instantly enraged that they had played her. “Al as soon as you calm down, we will talk,” Matt said as he and the others got comfortable. After about an hour or two Al finally calmed down and they convinced her that her mother’s kidnapping wasn’t their fault. Now that she was calm or at least calm for Al they untied her. “Alright fine it’s not your fault, but trust me if you want to live you’re going to help me,” Al threatened as she stretched out. “Relax Al, now do you have any idea who would want to take her?” Matt asked. “It’s got to be the Xiongs,” Al said. “That would make sense; you always said your family had a major beef with them,” Lucian said. “Wait, do you mean like in Hei Xiong Jr? I though he was just a seedy club owner” Yang asked. “No he is the son of Hei Xiong senior aka Papa Xiong the head of the Xiong crime family,” Narco said. “Good, let’s pay Junior a little visit,” Al said with a devious look. “Alright, we’ll go,” Matt said. He laid out their plan, “I’ll take Yang, and the team STAR members down and talk to Junior.” He turned to his team mates, “Take a member of team RWBY and talk to Razor, Ash, and anyone else you think might know something.” Everyone agreed and went their separate ways.

…

                Junior Xiong was sitting at his desk in the office he kept in the back of his club going over the financials for his club when there was a frantic knocking on the door. “What,” he said looking up from the desk full of financial records. Miltia and Melanie pooped their heads in the door. “We got a problem boss,” Miltia said. “She’s coming,” Melanie added. Junior dropped his pen and said, “Tell the boys to be ready for a fight.” Junior grabbed his rocket launcher club and followed the twins out into the club. Juniors goons all grabbed their weapons and set up around the club with their guns trained on the door. The air was tense as they waited. “Dang it, I thought you said Blondie was coming,” Junior said questioning the twins. “We didn’t mean her,” Melanie said. “We meant _HER_ ,” Miltia finished. Juniors eyes went wide realizing who they meant.

                Suddenly a buzz saw blade cut into the wall cutting a large hole in it. As the dust cleared Al stepped in firing wild and taking out several goons by sheer luck. She converted to her buzz saw staff and charged straight towards Junior. The twins jumped in front of her trying to fight her off but Al just dodged their attacks and struck them both down. Junior fired a barrage of rockets at her and she converted back to her tommy gun and shot them out of the air. She charged up to Junior. He tried to block an attack but her saw chopped his club rocket launcher in two. She continued the motion and put the other saw blade to his throat, not starting up the saw yet but keeping her finger on the trigger, her very _Itchy_ trigger finger.

                “Ah hey Al, long time no see,” Junior said trying to defuse the situation. “Sta ‘zitto (shut up) Xiong, where is mia madre?!” she demanded to know. “I don’t know!” he said in fear. “Your lying!” she yelled at him, inching her finger closer to the saw trigger. Junior closed his eyes flinching expecting to die when he heard the sound of lightning and the wind being knocked out of Al. He opened an eye to see Matt with an electrically charged fist in Al’s gut. She went limp dropping her weapon that automatically converted back to its inactive form that looked like a violin case as Matt caught her. “You guys, a little help,” Matt yelled. Starr, Lucian, and Yang were popping their heads in the door one over the other, all acting a little squirrely. “Is she down?” Starr asked. “Yes now someone get a backbone when it comes to Al, and GIVE ME A HAND!” Matt said in annoyance. Lucian ran up and took Al from him. “My apologies for Al, but you know how she can be. We just want to talk,” he told Junior. Junior didn’t want to take any chances and tried to punch him. Matt easily ducked under the punch, sliding around and behind junior drawing storm reaper converting it to its scythe mode, putting it to Junior’s throat. “Of course we could always do this the hard way,” Matt said deviously.

                “Dust Matt you really know how to intimidate a guy,” Yang said as she walked up. “Oh not you too Blondie,” Junior griped. “Relax Junior, we just want to talk,” Yang said. “That’s what he said before her put the oversized gardening tool to my throat,” he said gesturing his head towards Matt. “Watch it Xiong, Al isn’t the only one with a twitchy trigger finger,” Matt said as he converted his weapon back to its travel form and turned to the gangster. “Alright relax, what do you want?” Junior asked. “Let’s start with a drink,” Matt said.

                Al came to and they all sat at the bar, Junior behind it. “Alright you got your drinks now what do you want?” Junior asked again. Matt took a sip of his drink, “Where is Apple Scar?” “I don’t know,” he answered. “Cut it Junior, we both know that your family the Xiongs and the Scars are the only major crime groups in town, and have had a beef for decades,” Matt said. “What about Torchwick?” Junior argued. “In a cell on an Atlas cruiser, the Xiongs are the only people with a reason to take her,” Matt said. “Not anymore,” he said. “What are you talking about? Our families have been fighting since our great, great, grandfathers were in charge,” Al argued. “You’ve been out of the loop too long,” he said.

                “What’s he talking about?” Yang asked whispering in Lucian’s ear. “Al ran away from home and her family when she found out her father wanted her to run the family eventually. However, she didn’t want to be part of it and became a huntress,” he whispered back. “What are you talking about?” Al demanded to know. “five years ago the families signed an under-the-table deal dividing up the ‘enterprises’ in Vale. The Xiongs got the robbery, extortion, and white collar crime while the Scars got moonshine, counterfeiting, and smuggling. We haven’t fought over anything since then. My old man plays cards with yours every other week,” Junior said.  

                “Alright then let’s switch gears. What’s going on in the underbelly of Vale?” Matt asked him. Junior sighed, “Look all I’ve heard is some movement in the Grimm’s Cage, that’s all.” Al slammed her fist on the counter, “You full of it Junior, tell us everything!” “I’m serious that’s all I know!” he said holding up his hands. “Look just because my old man’s hypothetically in charge doesn’t mean I know anything. When I got into the family business I started at the bottom and worked my way up to here and even now I’m just hypothetically running a money laundering business,” Junior said doing air quotes whenever he said ‘hypothetically’. Matt and the others finished their drinks and Matt paid for them. “Thanks for the dirt,” Matt said as they left. “Sorry for the wall,” Starr added. “Later Junior, I’ll be sure to be back. this place is fun,” Yang threatened in an amused tone. Junior just slumped back against the bar groaning.

                Everyone came together at the Moon’s Den to compare notes over lunch. “So you think she might be in the Grimm’s Cage, that’s a tough area,” Razor said as he cleaned a glass. “What’s the Grimm’s Cage?” Ruby asked. “It’s a rough neighborhood in the south end of town. It’s known for a lot of seedy business,” Razor said. “But why do they call it the Grimm’s cage?” “Because they say going there is like stepping into a cage with a Grimm,” Lulu said. “Well let’s go take a look,” Starr said. “Actually we found a few other leads we want to take a look at,” Ringo said gesturing to herself, Lulu, and Narco. “Alright but you’re not going alone, who do you want to take with you?” Mat asked. “I’ll take Blake since I’m looking at a White Fang angle,” Ringo said. “Yang would be best, I”m looking at a biker gang that recently rolled into town,” Narco said. “I’ll take Weiss. I know a few guys in the police department that may be willing to let something _slip_ ,” Lulu said. “Alright I’ll take Ruby and, Starr, Lucian, and Al and take a look around the Cage,” Matt said. “Actually, maybe I should go with Lulu and Weiss. I’d kind of stick out like a sore thumb in the cage,” Starr said. “Fine, I won’t argue with you,” Matt agreed.  “I’ll keep my ear to the ground and see if I can dig up anything else,” Razor added. They finished lunch and split up again.

                Matt, Ruby and the two members of team STAR went to the Grimm’s Cage. It was a dark neighborhood with dirty streets and an air of danger in the atmosphere. “This place is creepy,” Ruby said. Matt took her hood and flipped it up over her head and the cape around her shoulders covering the rest of her. She looked to Matt in confusion. “Best not to be make direct eye contact, if they can’t get a good idea of who they’re looking at they usually won’t act on it,” Matt said as he pulled up his own hood while Lucian pulled up his and AL pushed her sunglasses all the way up her nose. “Keep your eyes open for anyone that looks like they’re up to something,” Al said.

                They walked through the cage looking for anyone suspicious. As they did someone gestured at them behind their backs. One by one, some hoodlums would get up from their seats on stoops and began to follow them. “We got tailgaters,” Al said. “We also got a guy perched on the roof two buildings back,” Ruby added. Al took a look behind her with mirrors built into the side lenses of her sunglasses.

                There was a young man perched on the corner roof. He wore a white tank top and black sleeveless hoodie with the hood up under a denim vest. He had dark blue jeans with rolled cuffs and tan work boots, and a red bandana tied around his neck. His arms were covered in a complex array of tribal style tattoos. Al smiled a bit, “No that one’s on our side.”

                One of the hoodlums that were following them took out a knife and dashed up behind Ruby. He tried to grab her and hold her at knife point but she dashed out of the way in a cloud of petals drawing her scythe and whacking the guy with the back of the blade. The others drew their weapons in their gun forms and aimed at the hoods. The thugs panics and turned to run but the mysterious man from the roof top dropped down blocking their path. The thugs pulled out knives and hand guns and charged at the mysterious man. “We got to help him!” Ruby said as she stepped to help but Lucian grabbed her shoulder. “He doesn’t need it. That is Denim Rough or as we call him Den. He’s the last member of team STAR,” Lucian said.

                The hoods ran at Den to stab him when his tattoos flew off his arm expanding to block the knives. “How did he do that?” Ruby asked. “His semblance is tattoo manipulation. Any tattoos on his body are basically weapons for him,” Lucian said. Den pushed the thugs back with his tattoos and they retracted back onto his arms. They charged back at him. He pulled a pair of butterfly knives out flipping the about and slashing a few of them. He jumped aside and threw the knives at another goon. They stabbed into the goons causing them to pass out and then he used his tattoos to grab the knives pulling them back to him. Hey drew a short compact shotgun. He walks towards the thugs calmly shooting them down as the charged him one by one like fools. Another thug jumped out from behind a crate and tried to hit Den in the back with a sledgehammer. Den swung around firing his shotgun in one hand. He let the force of the recoil to send the gun flying up in the air catching it by the priming pump and with the flick of the wrist the next shell into the chamber. Another hood went at him with an axe. Den flipped around his shotgun and it split in half on a hinge on the back with a long blade on the hinge like a giant butterfly knife. As he flipped it around, the blade struck the knife from the goon’s hand. The last two goons charged at him with axes. Two spots on his chest under his shirt glowed one blue one yellow. The light began to move expanding through his tattoos, the blue going down the right are and the yellow down the left. With the wave of his left arm a yellow tattoo extended of his arm and electrocuted one of them while a swing of the other extended out and froze the guy. His tattoos retracted and he began walking over to the others. He flipped his knife around a bit more as he converted it back to a shotgun and put it away along his back hips under his denim vest.

                He flipped his hood down to reveal his black hair in a windswept pompadour. “Well this is a surprise. What’s up?” he said. “Well if it isn’t the walking canvas,” Lucian said as they fist bumped. Al actually let her guard down and displayed a bit of femininity by giving him a quick hug, “It’s good to see you pin cushion.” “Why have you guys always got to bag on the ink?” Den asked jokingly. “So what brings you to the Cage?” “What brings you here?” Matt said answering a question with a question. “I grew up in the Cage; this place is home for me. Recently things have been getting rougher than usual around here so I’ve been trying to clean house. So what are you guys doing here?” “My mother was kidnapped. A lead sent us here,” Al said. “Oh dust, how can I help?” Den asked. “You notice anything seedy going on around the cage?” Ruby asked. “It’s the Grimm’s Cage kid, it’s the embodiment of seedy,” Den said. He turned to Matt asking, “Who’s the squirt?” “One of my students, what about places with people sneaking around, somewhere with people that look like they don’t belong?” Matt asked. “Now that you mention it, there’s an abandon warehouse on the docks that was recently purchased. There have been a lot of guys in suits with guns hanging around it. They don’t exactly fit in,” Den said. “Let’s have a look,” Lucian said.

                They found the warehouse and could see numerous men in suits walking guard posts, their jackets bulging from the firearms hidden under them. “Yep, this looks like the place,” Ruby said. “We need to see what’s inside,” Lucian said. “Then let’s introduce ourselves,” Al said as she converted her weapon Scarface from its violin case form to its active tommy gun mode. “Yeah,” Ruby said in agreement. “Hold on, let’s not be too hasty,” Matt said as he put his hands on their weapons pulling them down. “You got a better idea?” Al asked. “I might,” Den said pointing to the rooftop next to the warehouse. It was close enough for them to jump across onto the roof of the warehouse.

                They snuck across the street and behind the building. Lucian drew a glyph and a pillar of brimstone rose up under their feet and lifted them to the roof. They quietly crossed the roof and jumped over to the roof of the warehouse. Creeping up to the sky light they looked down into the warehouse doing their best not to be detected. Inside they saw dozens of goons dressed like Junior’s men unpacking crates of weapons. “Ah gun runners, scum of remnant,” Ruby joked. “Guys over there,” Den said pointing over to a catwalk. There they saw an older man with black hair in a shot ponytail and a short beard. He wore a black fedora with a red band, a black dress shirt under a black three piece suit, red tie, black dress shoes, and a black long coat. Al struggled to contain her rage. “Al what’s wrong?” Ruby asked. “Junior lied to us, that’s Hei Xiong Senior,” she said. “I want these toys unpacked and ready by morning. The Scars will want blood soon,” the crime boss yelled to his men. “Yes sir!” the goons yelled.

                Matt slammed Junior up against a wall with one of his seraph swords to his throat and all his talons all out. “You lied to us Junior,” Matt said in a perturbed tone.  “What are you talking about?” Junior asked. “Matt’s talons opened to reveal their guns and targeting lasers all aimed at Junior’s face. “Alright, alright, my old man had her taken,” he admitted. “Why?!” Matt demanded. “I don’t know,” he answered. “Hey Al you want a shot at him?’ Matt asked the mafiosa. She was with with Ruby, Den, an Lucian piling up his unconscious goons. She turned to look with a devious smile on her face. “No, no alright, my old man is trying to start a war,” Junior said. “Why?” Matt demanded as he let Junior go but kept his talons trained on him. Junior straitened his tie and said, “My old man is greedy. He wants to start a war and destroy the Scars and take over all the dirty business in Vale.” “Then why take mia madre?” Al demanded. “Because he wants the Scars to make the first move, he thinks if they attack first a good portion of his men can get off on self-defense pleas when the dust settles and the cops start charging people. Plus he wants to lead them into a trap,” Junior said. “Makes sense, angry mobsters tend not to think before they push deep into enemy territory and end up surrounded,” Al said. “Where does your old man have mia madre?” Al demanded. “Probably at the warehouse in the Grimm’s Cage, that’s where he set up his staging ground. That’s all I know I swear!” he said.  Matt recalled his talons to his harness and holstered his Seraph. “Alright, here’s what’s going to happen Junior. I’m going to let you keep your little money laundering scheme going, your head on your shoulders, and your father never has to know you ratted him out. And in exchange you are going to you are going to tell us everything we want to know when we come around, and you’re going to give us the truth the first time. Got it?” Matt asked him in a threatening tone. “You got it, just please don’t wreck the place again. I had just gotten the place put back together after the last time Blondie was here,” he begged.

                They went back to Matt’s office and waited for the others to show up. Lulu, Weiss, and Starr walked in. “Those cops are friends of yours?” Weiss asked Lulu in disbelief. “More like cops that I know how to manipulate,” she answered. “And to make matters worse we didn’t find out who took Al’s mother and…” Starr began to say and then she saw Den, “Denny!” she squealed in glee, elated to see her old teammate. She ran up and hugged her friend. “Good to see you Starr,” he said. Looks like we walked in on a reunion,” Narco said as he walked in followed by Ringo, Blake, and Yang.

                 “Alright now that we’re all here, let’s debrief. Narco, Yang what did you get?” Matt asked a he sat against his desk. “Nothing, those bikers took off yesterday afternoon before the kidnapping,” Yang said. “Blake, Ringo what about you?” Matt asked. “We found out that the White Fang had been purchasing weapons from the Xiongs through Torchwick until recently,” Blake said. “Other than that we got nothing,” Ringo added. “Lulu?” “Cops haven’t heard anything about the Scars but the Xiongs have been moving a lot lately. However, they don’t know what they up to,” Lulu said. “Well we can answer that,” Matt said as he stepped over to his maps. After going through several maps and another incriminating picture he found the map of town. He pointed at a spot in the Grimm’s Cage. “After we came across Den, he guided us to a warehouse right about here. Inside we saw the Papa Xiong and his men unpacking weapons by the hundreds. We had another ‘talk’ with junior and he admitted his father is trying to start a war with the Scars so he can take them out and take over all the criminal enterprises in Vale,” Matt explained. “The weapons mean they’re clearly preparing for war. They’re probably hoping that they can surprise the Scars with unexpected superior firepower,” Al added.

                “So then we just need to raid the place, save Al’s mom, and take out the Xiongs,” Narco said. “It won’t be that simple. They’ve got over a hundred men and who know what kind of hardware. We need to take some time and plan this out,” Lucian said. “We don’t have that kind of time,” Lulu said. “What do you mean?” Yang asked. “The cops got a tip from an informant in the Scars. They said that Don Rufino Scar delivered an ultimatum to the Xiongs. If they don’t return his wife by dawn it will be war,” Lulu said. Matt looked at the clock, it was midnight. “Oh dust, the cops don’t have time to deal with this through proper channels and there is defiantly no time to call in some more huntsman,” Matt said. “Then what do we do?” Matt passed back and forth a bit. “We’re going to go with the last resort, plan O,” he said.  

                As usual Ozpin was in his office working on paperwork, when the elevator dinged, and teams MRLN, STAR, and RWBY all fell out from trying to pack too many people into a tiny elevator. All Ozpin could do was raise a brow as they all staggered to their feet dusting themselves off. “Matt its past midnight, want do you want?” he asked in a slightly annoyed tone. “We got a problem Oz, potential gang war,” Matt said. “What are you talking about?” Ozpin asked. They filled the headmaster in and he leaned back in his chair. “Alright what do you need?” he asked. “I can get team RAZR to help us and Becky Oobleck, but we’ll need a couple teams of students for back up,” Matt said. “Who do you want?” Ozpin asked. “RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY should do,” Matt said. “Very well, we can’t have a major gang war in Vale. It will attract the Grimm,” Ozpin said. “You got it boss,” Matt said.

                He turned to the others. “Alright guys, wake up whoever you can find. Tell them to get dressed, chug down a gallon of coffee, grab their weapons, and get to the hanger. And someone call team RAZR,” he said. “They all scattered. Ruby and Blake ran down to the dorms and work teams JNPR and CFVY. Team JNPR were scared out of bed when Ruby slammed into the door. She had been using her semblance and forgot the door locked. Luckily for Blake team CFVY had decided to stay up with an action movie marathon in their dorm room. Becky was dashing about on a caffeine high working on experiments when Weiss opened the door wide and she slammed into the door with a container full of volatile dust, blowing herself up. Weiss looked behind the door to see the dazed teacher. “Professor, Matt needs you,” Weiss said.

                Razor was in the middle of the midnight rush when his scroll rang and he answered. “You got the Razor, howl it out for me,” he said. He listened to the person on the other line. “Got it,” he said and hung up. He hit a big red button on the wall behind the bar. A siren began going off and neon sign lowered out of the ceiling that said last call. “Last call!” Razor yelled signifying he was closing early. Zaffre had fallen asleep on a dolly under a car he was working on, snoring deeply. When his scroll rung he was startled awake and hit his head on the car’s undercarriage. “OW!” he yelled as he rolled out from under the car rubbing his head. He picked up the scroll. “What?!” he said into the scroll with an unhappy tone. He listen to the voice on the far end of the line. He tilted his head to hold the scroll to his shoulder and started cleaning his hands off with a grease rag. “Alright got it,” he said and hung up and went too switched out his mechanical arm for a combat model. Ash was working a domestic dispute case. She was following another cheating husband from the rooftops. The husband met a woman in an open air bar. “got you,” she said under her breathe. She dropped down hidden by her semblance and peeked around the corner, snapping pictures of the cheating husband when he scroll started ringing. She nearly dropped her camera as she ducked back around the corner. She dove into a dumpster just before the husband came around the corner looking for the source of the sound. After he left Ash popped out of the dumpster with an old banana peel on her head. She answered the scroll, “What?” she asked in an annoyed tone. She listened to the voice on the line. “Got it,” she said. Rouge was up late in her store working on her latest fashion creation when her scroll rang. She looked up from the mannequin with her teeth full of pins. She spat out the pins and answered the call. “Hello,” she said. She listened to the voice on the other end. “I’ll be there,” she said.

                Everyone piled into a group of bull heads and they took off for the Grimm’s Cage. They dropped in on a rooftop a ways from the warehouse and rendezvoused with team RAZR in the field. They moved closer to the warehouse, stopping on the roof of a warehouse across the street. “Alright, everybody know their assignments?” Matt asked the group. “Teams RAZR, JNPR, and CFVY as well as Becky are to surround the building to prevent escape. Teams MRLN, STAR, and RWBY will enter the building, capture Papa Xiong, destroy the weapons, capture whoever we can, and most importantly rescue Apple Scar to prevent a gang war,” Matt said reminding everyone. “Got it!” everyone said. Everybody scattered to reach their assigned points.

                Lucian pulled his hood up and along with Ruby and Ringo, they followed the same path they had taken earlier and made their way back to the skylight from before. He drew small fire glyphs and melted small circles of glass away. They stuck their sniper rifle barrels in the holes and waited for the attack to begin. Narco took Blake, and Yang to a position on the wall on one side of the warehouse while Al took Den, and Lulu on the wall on the other side. They two teams were to cut into the building using Narco’s chainsaw sword and Al’s buzz saw and surprise them from multiple angles. Matt had taken Weiss and Star with him and they planned to burst through the front door.

                As planned Matt’s group made the first move. With a wave of her hand, Starr increased the effects of gravity on the main door and it collapsed under its own weight. The sound of the door collapsing was the signal for the others. Narco and Al both cut large holes into the building and their groups charged in and the snipers on the roof started firing. They all started taking out goons as they pushed into the warehouse. When more goons came in on the catwalks, Lucian, Ruby, and Ringo shattered the skylight and dropped down onto the catwalks to deal with the fresh thugs.

                The sound of the fighting drew Papa Xiong out of an office. He saw the attackers and ran back into the office. A few minutes later a large mech similar in design to the Atlas Paladin burst through the loading door to the other half of the warehouse. It was large with a color scheme based on the Xiong family, with four legs, machine guns, and rocket launchers. 

                “Scrap,” Narco cursed under his breath and charged at the mech, converting his chainsaw sword to its glaive form. Along with him Al and Lulu leapt up to strike at the mech. However, they struck a powerful dust energy shield that sent Narco and Lulu flying into crates and Al just barely managed to land on her feet. “Matt we got a problem!” she yelled as the mech advanced. “Got it covered!” he yelled back as he tapped his ear piece to call someone.

                Becky Oobleck answered through her own ear piece as she threw another test tube of dust at a group of goons. “Razor!” she called to the wolf Faunus. “What?” he yelled back to her as he slashed another goon. “Matt needs me, close the line,” she yelled back and ran into the warehouse. She saw the mech and dove behind a crate next to Matt. “I assume that’s what you called me for,” she said. “You love giant robots,” he joked. “I got it,” she said and she pulled the ripcord on her pack. He armored battle suit unpacked and enveloped her plus a grenade launcher and a heavy auto rifle unpacked on the forearms.

                She charged using the thrusters on her back for acceleration and firing her guns at Papa Xiong’s mech. However, all her shots bounced off. She tried jumping up and coming down with a reverse uppercut and again bounced off. Next she tried an uppercut while firing her grenade launcher for added power but again he bounced off. “Covering fire!” Matt yelled and a bunch of them opened fire on the mech to let Becky fall back.

                She ducked behind a crate with Matt her helmet retracted and she said, “This isn’t working.” “Well that little toy you, Narco, and Zaffre have been working on late at night may work,” Matt said exposing something she was obviously trying to hide. “How do you know about that?” she asked defensively. “Not important, does it work?” he asked. “It should but I’ve never tested the field deployment system,” she said. “Is it airborn at least?” he asked. “Yeah.” “Then use it!” he ordered. Becky gave a huff as she conceded and flipped up a control panel on her arm. She began to type in commands. “E.T.A. 25 seconds,” she said.

                In the sky a seemingly innocent cloud floated over the battle. However, inside this cloud was a floating weapons platform held aloft by a gravity dust generator. The machine opened up, several flying pods dropped out of it, and flew towards the warehouse. In the warehouse Becky could hear the pods coming. She closed her helmet back on and charged back into the fray. Again she jump into the air so she could take a punch but this time as she pulled her fist back one of the pods from the cloud weapons platform rammed straight onto her arm. But instead of slamming into it full force it opened and engulfed her arm converting into a huge robotic arm. She swung her giant fist and slammed it straight into Papa Xiong’s mech actually causing it to take a few steps back. As she fell to the ground more pods flew in becoming two legs, the main torso, the head, the other arm and the shoulder mounted weapons of her pet project, the large green mech she had dubbed Big Dewin.

                Papa Xiong charged back at Becky firing his machineguns and then took a punch at Becky and her mech. She blocked it with Dewin’s forearms and then took her own punch. Xiong jumped back just out of range of the punch but Becky triggered a secret weapon in the arms and the fist rocketed out on a piston slamming into his mech with full force. She fired her back thrusters and tackled Papa Xiong’s mech with her own mech’s full weight, forcing them both through the wall of the warehouse and into the empty freight yard. They slammed against a dock crane grappling with each other. As Xiong began to push her off she activated her left back weapon. An armored piercing auto cannon unfolded and swung over her shoulder aiming at Xiong. She fired off several rounds. The shells managed to penetrate the dust shield and some of them went into the opposing mech’s arm crippling it. He still managed to push her off. He opened the rocket pods on his mech’s shoulders and fired a barrage of rockets at her. Reacting quickly, she sprayed her machineguns into the air shooting down the rockets that would have hit her. They got into another fist fight. This time Becky forced her foe back and several armored plates across her mech opened revealing rocket pods. She fired a barrage but it was aimed at the ground beneath his feet. The rockets blew apart the ground creating a small sinkhole. Xiong’s mech fell into the hole and more debris fell in to trap the mech. Becky swung her other shoulder weapon into its firing position, a high powered dust beam cannon. She charged the weapon to full capacity. “I’d eject if I were you!” she yelled to Papa Xiong through Big Dewin’s loud speaker. Papa Xiong popped open the hatch of his mech and leapt from the cockpit just as Becky fired. The powerful beam struck the mech and blew the machine apart. 

                Papa Xiong stumbled to his feet and drew two revolvers based on a long barrel Italian Rhino Chiappa. Becky aimed her machineguns at him. “NO!” she heard being yelled from behind her. Al and the others walked out of the warehouse having taken out all of Papa Xiong’s men. “He’s MINE!” Al yelled with her gun leaning over her shoulder. Xiong tried to run for it but Ruby dashed in front of him. He tried to run another way but Matt bolted into that path. He tried again and again but each time someone got in his way eventually forming a full encirclement. Al stepped into the circle and faced Papa Xiong, her weapon drawn. She took a closer look at his guns. “Those guns…” she said pointing at him. “Oh you like them. They were a gift from my father. He said he killed a guy for them. What was his name?” he asked sarcastically. “Rufino Scar the first,” Al said in anger. “Oh yeah the previous head of the Scar family,” he said. “Those belonged to mio nonno (my grandfather),” Al said. “You’re gonna pay!” she yelled as she opened fire on him.

                He dove out of the way and fired back at her. She charged at him guns blazing. He slid out of the path of the bullets and fired back. Al rolled out of the way. She turned to fire but halfway through the burst her ammo ran out. Xiong used this moment of weakness to advance on Al. He converted his revolvers into a type of brass knuckles. With the main firing mechanisms on top of the hand and three large bolt heads between the knuckles. He took a punch at her. She blocked the attack against the side of her tommy gun and used the force of the punch to propel herself back towards Ruby. She skidded to a halt in front of Ruby and stared the young girl dead in the eye. Al’s own eyes flashed and she turned back towards her foe. She dashed back towards her foe using Ruby’s semblance leaving behind a cloud of rose petals. She dashed about firing bursts of gunfire at him.

                She dashed up on top of a shipping crate where Blake was watching from and copied her semblance. She back flipped converting her weapon to its buzz saw staff. The two of them started going at it. Al would use Blake’s semblance to leave shadow copies as she would dodge attacks and strike him in the back. After her fifth pass, Xiong spun his leg behind him knocking Al off her feet. He spun to punch her but not before she looked up into the eyes of the student watching from the crate above her, Yang. Xiong started beating down on her delivering a rapid barrage of punches, some of them with firing rounds for added damage. The barrage kicked up a large cloud of dust around her and sent her fedora floating up into the air. Eventually as Xiong threw a punch it stopped short. As the dust cleared a bit they could see Al’s hand had caught the fist and she threw him back. She stood up and caught her fedora as it floated down. Her hair had flared out and emitted dark green flames similar to how Yang’s emitted yellow when her semblance activated. She cracked her neck to each side as she stepped out of the dust cloud. “Oh I like this semblance,” she said and took a fighting stance with her staff. “Let’s burn it down!” She charged at him striking with immense power. She beat the stuffing out of Papa Xiong until his aura snapped. He flew up against shipping crate and Al walked up to the dazed crime boss resting her gun on his nose. “Now…” she began to say as she deactivated her barrowed semblance and the flames in her hair extinguished. Al picked up the pistols Papa Xiong was using. “I don’t think these belong to you,” she said as she took the weapons. “Where is mia madre?” she asked.

                Apple Scar sat on her cot in the small makeshift cell the Xiongs had locked her in, still wearing her formal red dress from the concert and her red hair somewhat disheveled. She was starting to lose hope when a buzz saw blade cut into the steel cell door’s hinges and she shielded her eyes. She heard the sound of a powerful kick and the door fell into the cell. She looked up to see her daughter with a smug smile on her face. “Mia Piccolo!”(My little one) Apple chimed as she embraced her daughter. The others were surprised to actually see Al show some sort of emotion other than anger as she hugged her mother back.

                The cops soon arrived, drawn there by the commotion. The hunters and students were kept from leaving for the rest of the night as the cops had tons of questions. Eventually the sun came up and everyone was beat. Most of the students had fallen asleep against some of the police cars while Matt and his colleagues were sitting around with coffee the cops had brought. Al and her mother were sitting together talking about everything they had missed with each other since Al hadn’t gone home in years.

                As the morning rolled around a black limo pulled up. A chauffeur got out, ran around to the passenger door, and opened it for the occupant. Two large men in black suits with orange ties stepped out and stepped to the side. A man in his early fifties stepped out of the limo. He had green hair like AL under a white fedora with a black band. He wore a white dress shirt, orange tie, an orange vest, a full black suit, and black dress shoes. A black trench coat was draped over his shoulders and he held a black cane with a silver bulb like handle. He took a cigar from his coat, bit off the tip, and placed it in his mouth. He held up his cane flicking a button and the lighter built into the head lit the cigar.

                Al noticed the new arrival almost immediately. She stopped dead in the middle of her conversation with her mother and stood up. She walked to the edge of the crime scene towards the man. They two guards slid in front of her blocking her path but the man tapped his cane on the ground two times and they moved out of the way. They looked at each other with intense looks in their eyes. By now some of the students had woken up. “Hey Matt who’s that?” Ruby asked Matt. Matt looked to who she was talking about and his heart skipped a beat. “Oh dust hide,” he said as he dove behind the crate he was leaning on. “What is it?” Blake asked. “That’s Don Rufino Scar the second, the head of the Scar family Mafia and Al’s old man,” Matt said. The others’ realized the gravity of the situation and everyone dove behind cover.

                “Alaina,” Don Rufino said in a strong Italian accent. “Padre (father),” Al said back to him. The silence returned and then she took out the pistols she had taken from Papa Xiong the barrels pointed at her father. Ruby and the others gasped a little thinking she was going to shoot him but then she flipped them around in her hands so the handles faced her father. He took the pistols and looked them over. “The Primo Busters, you il nonno di pistole ( your grandfather’s pistols),” he said. You’re the head of the family so rightfully they’re yours,” she said. He took another look at the weapons and then flipped the handles back around to her. “Keep them, I think you’ll have a better use for them,” he said. She looked at him with an air of curiosity and caution but took the guns back. “Thanks,” she said. The silence returned for a minute. “I’m not coming back to the family business. I’m a huntress now and forever,” she said as she turned to leave. Suddenly she heard the sound of her father’s cane hitting the ground and a pair of arms hugged her from behind, her father. She was frozen in shocked unable to respond to what was happening. “I accepted that fact the day you chose to run away from home. I’ve been trying to find you since I heard you graduated Beacon to tell you but you kept moving around before I could find you. I don’t care if you not part of the family business I just want mia figlia (my daughter) back,” he said. “As long as I don’t mess with the business right?” she asked raising a brow slightly amused. “Well a father has to draw the line somewhere,” he said jokingly. They both laughed a little. “I’m not asking you to move in or work for the family business. I would just like you to call once in a while, maybe come home for the holidays. I just want to be a family again,” he said. “I think I can do that,” she said.

                “What’s going on here?” Apple asked. Rufino turned to his wife. “Mia amore,” he said as he embraced his wife. “I think padre and I have just reached a peace agreement,” Al said. Apple squealed in joy as she embraced her husband and daughter. “Oh lets go celebrate,” Apple said. “Well I don’t want to just ditch my team,” Al said. “GO!” everyone yelled from their hiding places. She looked back to the others who had been watching cautiously the whole time. “What is this, some heartwarming sob story?” she asked rhetorically. “Just go Al. You lucky you get a second chance with you dad. I didn’t even get a first,” Matt said. “No we don’t want to be rude, let’s invited you friends,” Apple suggested. “Grand idea mia amore,” Rufino said. “Are we seriously being invited to breakfast by one of the biggest mobsters in Vale?” Weiss asked. “You’re going to _turn down_ an invitation from one of the biggest mobsters in Vale?” Matt said answering her question with a question. This one going to be one interesting meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on team STAR go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Team-STAR-655032583?q=Zummerz%2F61617378&qo=2
> 
> For more information on the other members of the Scar family go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/The-Scar-Family-655033347?q=Zummerz%2F61617378&qo=1
> 
> For more information on Hei Xiong Senior go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Hei-Xiong-Senior-655033753?q=Zummerz%2F61617378&qo=0


	13. Brothers in Arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Matt has stalled on celebrating the anniversary of when he and Ringo started dating Ringo goes on a warpath. However, Matt had simply been stalling while finishing a surprise for her. When he needs a specific kind of dust to finish it he has no choice but to go to the Dust capital of the Kingdom of Vale for it. Of course the members of team RWBY just had to tag along. Along the way they learn an interesting secret about Matt and a few faces from his past.

 

                The girls of team Ruby were in there room playing their favorite ninja fighting video game and as usual Yang was dominating the competition. Suddenly they heard someone stomping down the hall. The stomping stopped, their door flew open, and Ringo stomped in with an angry look on her face. “Where’s Matt?!” she demanded to know. “We don’t know,” Ruby said. Ringo groaned and stomped out slamming the door. A few seconds after she left there was a spark in the electrical outlet and Matt flew out crouched on his hands and knees covering his head. After a second he looked up and surveyed his surroundings. “Is she gone?” he asked in a cowering tone. “Who?” Weiss asked. “Ringo, she’s trying to kill me,” he said. “How could Ringo kill you? She’s so nice,” Ruby said. Matt dove under Blake’s bed, sticking his head out to talk to the girls. “Trust me, I don’t care how nice, cute, or fluffy she is. When Ringo is angry, Ringo is dangerous,” he said and ducked back under the bed.

                “Why is she ticked at you?” Yang asked. Matt popped his head out and said, “She thinks I forgot our anniversary.” You’re not married,” Ruby said. “No, it’s the anniversary of when we started dating during our junior year,” he said. “You’ve been dating for six year, why haven’t you tied the knot by now?” Yang asked. “Well we considered it but we both decided that if we were going to do it, we’d wait till we were in our late 20s just to be sure we were ready for it,” he said. “I don’t get it, wouldn’t you have had to know she what she was angry about in order to stay a step ahead when hiding?” Weiss asked. “That’s the thing, I didn’t forget. It was last week,” he said. “If you didn’t forget, why is she trying to kill you?” Weiss asked. “Well I was working on something special but I’ve been having trouble finding the necessary dust materials I need to finish. So I thought I play dumb and surprise her when I finished it, but I think I stalled to long,” he said.

                “Well what kind of dust do you need? I can have the SDS send it to you,” Weiss offered. “That’s not going to work. I need a very special formula that only a few dust chemist in Remnant can make,” Matt said. He groaned slightly, “I’m going to have to go to Magnum Opus.” He said. “What’s Magna Fopis?” Ruby asked. “Magnum Opus,” Weiss corrected her. “It’s the dust capital of Vale. The city is home to some of the greatest dust researchers in Remnant.” “Yeah it’s a magical town, I highly suggest visiting,” Matt said. “Oh can we come with you? I’ve been dying to go and we have a long weekend this week so we have time,” Weiss pleaded. Matt looked the girls over as he crawled out from under Blake’s bed. From the look in all the girls’ eyes he could tell they were all interested in going. Matt sighed,   
“Alright, order some train tickets. This is a personal trip so we won’t be able to take a bullhead. It will be about a day’s train ride. Luckily there’s some pretty good scenery on the ride.” Matt bolted into the outlet to go pack and the girls all started packing.

                The next day Matt and the girls snuck off campus with their bags. They stopped by Razor’s place to drop off the dogs and just managed to catch their train, having to throw their bags on and jump on as it pulled out. Matt had been right about the scenery. The view from the train as they flew down the tracks over the forest of forever fall was beautiful, the mountains and scarlet trees were truly a sight to behold. Unfortunately for Blake it just brought back memories of when she betrayed Adam, but she put on a brave face and didn’t let it show. “So Matt what’s Magnum Opus like?” Yang asked. “It’s an interesting town. The use of dust really makes the town feel magical, I haven’t been since the last time I saw my broth…” Matt began to say but stopped cold. “What is it?” Ruby asked.

                Matt sat back in his seat and began to clean his glasses. “Girls there’s something I need to tell you about, but I need you to promise me something. You will never tell anyone     especially my mother about this,” he said. The girls all looked at each other and then agreed. “Alright when I told you I was an only child, I may not have been telling you the truth,” He said. “Wait you have siblings?” Ruby asked. “Half siblings, on my father’s side. A little while after I was 18 I got a letter from my dad, whoever he is. It said that I had siblings out there and their names. Plus I ended up finding out I was already going to school with some of them,” Matt explained. “And you bought it?” Blake asked skeptically. “I was skeptical too but he had DNA test done and it was true. And then later once I started teaching, I got another letter telling me about more siblings. Apparently my old man only tells us about each other when we are 18. As soon as one of us turns 18 he sends out letters to the new sibling and the siblings that were already of age,” Matt said. “So you got a sibling in Magnum Opus?” Yang asked. “Yeah a brother Clancy,” he said. “Oh so he can help us find what we need,” Ruby said. “Oh no, we do not want to do that; Clancy can be a little difficult to deal with. He’s far more comfortable with a pile of volatile dust than he is with a person,” Matt said.

                Suddenly they heard a series of popping sounds. “What was that, some bumps in the tracks?” Weiss asked. They heard the pops again, this time louder. “No that was gunfire,” Matt said as he drew one of his Seraph machine pistols. He popped his head out the door to their compartment and cautiously moved down the hall towards the sound of the gunfire followed by the girls with their weapons drawn. There was an explosion and they broke into a run. They burst through the door onto one of the flatbed cars towards the back of the train to see a mad man with a gun holding people hostage. Matt pulled the girls behind a crate before the mad man could notice them. “Alright extra credit lesson, what is the first thing to remember in a hostage situation?” Matt asked the girls. Before the girls could answer he answered for them, “Never rush into it.”

                Just them an arrow flew through the air, striking the deck at the mad man’s feet, and a wall of ice rose up separating the mad man from the hostages. A strange young man jumped off of the roof of the car behind Matt and the girls landing on the flatbed car. He had silver windswept hair, blue eyes, and a large scar spread across part of his face. He wore black button up shirt with silver detail, black pants, and silver boots. He had a silver trench coat with a black belt and the left sleeve cut off. On his thighs he had quivers of crossbow arrows for the crossbow in his hand and his left arm was covered in silver armored plating with a form of metal wing on it with a razor sharp edge.

                As the hostage taker tried to process what was happening, the silver haired man converted his crossbow to a sword and charged. The mad man tried firing at him but the young man flicked the metal wing on his arm and it became a shield along his arm that he used to block the incoming fire. He reached the bad guy and slashed him with his sword, using a lightning dust charged blade to stun him, and the crazy guy went down in one blow. A pair of railroad cops showed up and took custody of the criminal as the silver haired man walked back towards the passenger cars. “Matt,” he said as he passed the young teacher acknowledging his existence. “Sterling,” Matt returned acknowledging he knew him. Sterling walked back into the passenger cars with a stern look. “Matt do you know that guy?” Ruby asked. “Yeah that Sterling Icarus, he’s another one of my siblings,” he said.

                The five of them returned to their compartment and Matt told them about Sterling. “I suggest just giving him his distance,” Matt said as they entered the compartment. “He’s not the kind of guy that likes to be sociable.” “Hey guys look,” Ruby said as she opened the window and stuck her head out for a better look.

                As the train rounded the corner they could see the city of Magnum Opus. The whole city was built up the side of a mountain on various steps like levels the bottom level which sat on the bank of a river. The streets that ran up the mountains had tracks for trolleys. The cobblestone streets were lined with various buildings were done in an old London architectural style, each having different amounts of floors so none of the roofs lined up and were each painted in flashy colors. The ground levels of all the building were stores, mostly selling dust based products. Street venders were all demonstrating various magical products made with dust and bright colorful lamps floated in the air using gravity dust illuminated the streets in a rainbow of color. Many of the buildings were connected with small cargo zip lines moving boxes from place to place and colorful smoke rose from the chimneys. As Matt and the girls walked down the streets they could hear magical music coming from talented street musicians.

                “What did I tell you, it’s a magical town,” Matt said. “I’ll say,” Yang said as she and the girls looked around, fascinated by the busy city. “I know the floating lamps and…,” Ruby began to say. Then she squealed and dashed over to a store front drooling over the display of weapons. “Oh boy,” Matt said amused by Ruby’s quirky love of weapons. “Come on Rosebud, we got dust to find,” Matt called to the young scythe wielder. “So what kind of dust are we looking for?” Weiss asked. “It’s called form light dust. It can be used to form light projections with a physical form to them,” Matt said. “What use could that be?” Blake asked. “Remember Starr Onion’s weapon? It formed hard light weapons by connecting the various star bolts with hard light lines to create handheld weapons, but it can be used to make far more complicated projections,” Matt said.

                The five of them searched through various dust shops but failed to find the dust they were looking for. “This isn’t working, there’s got to be like hundreds of dust shops in this town,” Blake said. “Thousands,” Matt corrected. “5,373 dust shops to be specific.” “So what, we’re going to check all of them?” Ruby asked sarcastically. “No just number 5,373, Born from Dust, Return to Dust,” Matt said.

                The five of them caught a trolley and road it up the mountain to the top of the city where they found the shop they were looking for. It was a small building about the size of a house done in a Victorian style with various pipes, moving gears sticking out of the walls, and a large waterwheel in in a small river next to the place. Hanging off the outcropping over the pouch was a hanging sign that said “Born from Dust, Return to Dust”. They walked in to the store ringing the bell hanging from the door. The store was full of tanks of powdered dust, display cases of crystals and various displays of dust tools, fabrication tools, dust infused cloth and weapons. The girls looked around, at the various displays. Ruby became very interested in a large setup of computerized dust chemistry equipment with a control keyboard. She looked both ways and was about to press a big red button on the console when someone yelled, “DON’T TOUCH THAT!”

                A young woman ran up behind her and swung her away from the equipment looking it over equipment making sure nothing was disturbed. Then she turned resting against the table relieved that nothing was messed up. She had blue hair in a ponytail with a pair of goggles on her forehead that had magnifying lenses that could flip down over one side. She wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows under a low cut blue vest with brass detail, blue pants, a brown leather belt with a pouch of tools hanging off the side, and brown leather boots. On her left hand was a brass gauntlet with various tubes and vials of dust on it, and on her right thigh was a holster containing some form of a revolver like gun with a curved strait handle grip rather than a pistol grip.

                “Please don’t touch the displays. Some of them can be somewhat volatile,” the woman stutter. “Still dust crazed I see,” Matt said from behind the woman and making her jump. She spun around to see Matt and calmed down. “Matt it’s been forever,” she said as she gave him a quick hug obviously more comfortable with him. “Yeah well it isn’t too easy to get out of Vale that often on personal business Indy,” he said. He turned to the girls and introduced them, “Indy I’d like to introduce you to a few of my students, this is Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, girls this in Indigo Jay.” “A pleasure,” she stuttered out. “Is he in?” Matt asked. “In the lab,” Indigo said.

                Indigo guided them back into the back of the store. It was a large laboratory with a high ceiling and a loft over it. The lab had many large vats of dust being processed, gears connected to the water wheel driving mixers, and complex chemical processing setups formulating dust. Everything glowed in various colors and the sounds of bubbling permeated the room. Being the team’s resident dust expert Weiss was fascinated. She was looking into a bubbling pot when someone pulled her back by the collar just before a plume of hot gases blew up into her face.

                She turned to see a young man she had never met. He had silver hair tied into a short ponytail and blue eyes behind a pair of glasses with a jewelers loop like magnifying attachment. He wore a silver collared shirt under a long red coat with complex gold patterns woven into it, black pants, red sneakers, and a leather harness and belt with a dial on his chest and various capsules on it. Interestingly enough he looked a little like Matt although he appeared completely emotionless. He said nothing, just pointed at a sign above the cauldron that read, “Warning volatile dust. May flare hot gases at any time.” He then turned away and walked down the line of cauldrons checking on the dust.

                “Uh Matt,” Weiss called out to the teacher, not knowing how to respond to the person she had just met. The others joined her in watching the odd man work as if he was completely alone. “There he is,” Indigo said. She walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder, “Clancy we have guests.” He didn’t respond, just moved on a mixing station to check on the dust. “Clancy come on, someone’s here to see you,” Indigo tried again. This time he spoke, “Just take their order and give them a time estimate, and if they won’t leave shoot them.” He moved to the next lab station.

                Matt groaned a bit. “Man this guy is rude,” Yang said. “That’s Clancy Philosiph, my antisocial brother,” Matt said. He slunk up behind Indigo and tapped her shoulder signaling to let him try. She stepped back and Matt tried to get his brother’s attention. He placed his hand on Clancy’s shoulder and a glyph formed, giving the silver haired brother a shock making him spasm a bit and toss up the flask of dust he was holding. He quickly regained motor control and barely manages to catch the flask of fire dust, narrowly avoiding disasters. Clancy turned to Matt. He was angry at first, but when he saw who it was his anger turned to annoyance.

                “Indigo, forget taking their order just shoot them,” Clancy said scornfully. “Good to see you too bro,” Matt said. “Please Matt you know I hate social calls,” Clancy said. “Well good because I didn’t catch a train from Vale just to say hi. I need some dust, high grade form light dust to be specific,” the young teacher said. “You’re out of luck, I just sold the last of that stuff,” Clancy said as he looked through a microscope. “Come on Clancy I’m in a bind here.” Matt pleaded. “What do you even need form light dust for, it’s not like you need another weapon,” Clancy said. “It’s not for a weapon it’s…” Matt got in close and whispered in his half-brother’s ear. “Alright fine I’ll make a new batch, but I don’t have all the materials here. I’ll have to go out tomorrow to get them from the suppliers,” Clancy said.

                “Why can’t we get them now?” Ruby asked. Clancy looked at the girls, “What’s with the cheer squad?” “A team of my students, two of which I grew up with so they’re like sisters to me. They really wanted to see Magnum Opus. “Like she said, why can’t we get the materials now?” Blake asked. All the good vendors for raw dust tend to close early and I’m tired. Plus I have to check all the dust myself to ensure that we get quality dust,” Clancy said. “Well I can do that for you. I’m a Schnee after all, we live for dust,” Weiss said. “Like I said, _I_ have to check all the dust to make sure we get quality dust,” he scoffed. Then without another word he walked up a spiral staircase to the balcony looking over the lab and down a hall.

                “Ladies and gentleman, Clancy Philosiph,” Matt said sarcastically. “I need a drink, Indigo is there a bar near here?” Matt asked. “Well there’s Potter’s a block over,” Indigo said. “I’ll be back in an hour,” he said. “Are you sure you want to go out?” Ruby asked. “I am not the Drunken Scythe of Signal. Just because I was one of Qrow’s best students doesn’t mean I drink like him, and I need a drink if I’m going to survive dealing with Clancy, at least until he softens up,” Matt said as he walked out. “You guys can stay here, we got a few guest rooms upstairs but you’ll have to pair up, its upstairs last two doors on the right,” Indigo said. “You don’t use them often I take it,” Blake said referring to Clancy’s unfriendliness. “He’s really a nice guy when you get to know him, he’s just been under a lot of stress lately,” Indigo stuttered out defending her boss. Yang noticed a certain tone among Indigo’s stutter, one that said there was more between them than just the employer employee relationship. “Is there something going on with you and Clancy Indy?” Yang asked. Indigo’s face went red as Ruby’s hood and she scurried out without a word.

                The next day Clancy went out to collect the necessary materials to make the dust Matt needed, bringing Matt and the girls with him so they wouldn’t touch anything back at his shop and lab. They walked down the streets of Magnum Opus looking at more of the shops. Clancy was noticeably nicer with the people on the streets than he had been when they first met him, however he would still ungracefully pull them back from various hazards by the collars. “You need to be careful, this town may be beautiful but it’s also incredibly dangerous,” Clancy said.

                As they walked around buying the needed materials for the form light dust, they heard a skidding sound outside the shop they were in and a crash. They ran outside to see a car had slammed into a dust shop and was leaking dust fuel a young girl trapped inside the car. Clancy reacted fast. He turned the dial on his chest and gravity dust flowed out of one of the capsules on his belt and spread through tubes in his coat. The gold patterns turned black like gravity dust and he began he jumped over the crowds in the streets to the car wreck, flying through the air without being effected by gravity. He landed and turned the dial again. This time ice dust flowed into the coat and the patterns turned light blue. He held out his hand and a sword of ice formed. He jammed the sword in the car door and tried to pry it open. When that didn’t work he turned the dial again and a hammer of earth dust formed. He used it to drive the sword in deeper for leverage and then slammed the side of the sword and the door flew off. He quickly slashed off her seatbelt and pull the girl from the car as a small fire was spreading to the wreck. He jumped back carrying the girl and turned the dial on his chest. The fire reached the car and it exploded. “Clancy!” Matt yelled. When the dust cleared they could see a dome of rock in the street. The dome collapsed to reveal Clancy and the girl safe from the blast. Clancy pulled a few water dust crystals from his coat and they floated above his hand. He flicked his wrist and the gems flew towards the burning car and when he snapped his fingers the crystals exploded into a torrent of water extinguishing the flames.

                The girls were awestruck to see this side of Clancy. He wasn’t the total jerk they thought he was. After a quick talk with the cops they stopped to get lunch at one of the local cafes. “I’ll admit you’re not as cold as you originally seemed,” Ruby said. Clancy looked up from his sandwich. “Excuse me?” he asked. “I think she means how you were not exactly the kindest person when we first met but you went out of you way to save that girl just didn’t seem like the person we first met,” Weiss said trying to translate Ruby’s juvenile statement. Clancy sighed, “Alright I guess I may as well drop the act.” He leaned back in his seat and his whole personality seemed to change a bit. His tone became more relaxed and the aura he put off became far less abrasive than he was before. He now felt far more approachable than he was when they first met him. “What do you mean by act?” Blake asked. “Well Clancy’s whole self-superior genius abrasive personality is an act,” Matt said. “I’m just not comfortable around most people especially new people. I just put up the front so people will leave me alone,” Clancy explained.

                They finished eating and Clancy left them to find the last few ingredients himself. They reconvened at the café later but Clancy was nowhere to be found. When he didn’t show up they went to look for him. They looked down an alley to see a pair of men trying to intimidate him. “We warned you Philosiph now you going to pay,” One of the men said. “Excuse me gentlemen, we’ve been looking for him,” Matt said. “Get lost pal, we have business with him,” the other thug said. “Well so do I, now if you’d please?” Matt asked. Matt pulled out his machine pistols and let loose his talons and the girls drew their weapons as the two thugs pulled out guns. The goons were easily out gunned and they knew it. They ran the opposite direction choosing not to risk the fight. “I could have handled it myself,” Clancy said. As Matt and the girls holstered their weapons he asked, “What was that all about?” “Some thugs rolled into town about a week or two ago and started shaking down local businesses, they’ve tried to get to me a couple of time but that’s the first time they ever pulled a weapon. Don’t worry about it too much,” Clancy said as they walked back to the lab.

                However, before they could get back they ran into more ridiculousness. People were crowded around a large intersection watching a fight between several thugs like the ones that were holding up Clancy and Sterling Icarus. One of the thugs tried to slash him with a sword but Sterling blocked it with his own and then slashed him with the razor sharp edge of his wing shield. He converted his sword to its crossbow form and fired off five shots taking down five thugs. He quickly pumped the shotgun style pump grip of few times which pulled back the five bowstrings on the crossbow, and he loaded five new arrows from his quivers. Two thugs tried to stab him but Sterling drew a glyph and he floated up off the ground out of their reach. He aimed and took out a few more thugs with his crossbow before drawing another glyph that let out a powerful flash blinding his foes. He dropped back down in the middle of them, converting his crossbow to its sword mode and he spun slashing down a few more men. He drew another glyph and he teleported over to another thug who he slashed. The thugs began to run but Sterling wasn’t going to let them get away. He clicked a switch on his crossbow. The stock expanded and the barrel on the end extended for range. The bow arms split into an X shape and another scope flipped up in front of the first one. He took a knee aiming for one of the thugs. “Sterling what’s going on?!” Matt yelled from the side lines. Matt’s outburst distracted Sterling and his shot missed.

                By now the thugs were out of range. “Agh!” Sterling yelled as he stomped his foot. He turned to Matt, Clancy, and the girls and stomped over to them. “What?!” he yelled. “Alright Sterling, I try to give you your space but when you start fights in the middle of a busy town I have no choice. Now cards on the table,” Matt said. Sterling turned to leave but Clancy turned the dial on his jacket and a large hand of dust extended form his arm and grabbed Sterling. Sterling groaned as they dragged him back to Clancy’s shop.

                They sat Sterling down and tried again. “Cards on the table Sterling, what are you doing in town?” Clancy asked. Sterling accepted he wasn’t getting out without telling them and answered, “Fine, I took a bounty job. I’m here to catch the leader of a group of migrant thugs calling themselves Grim Claw that recently rolled into town.” “Is he talking about those nuts that have been threatening Clancy to extort money?” Indigo asked. “Most likely,” Matt said. “So what do we do?” Ruby asked. “What do you mean we? This is my bounty and my mission,” Sterling said as he stood up. “Sterling for once would you let someone help you? You don’t have to keep going in alone. It’s better to work as a team,” Matt said. “Never, not again!” Sterling yelled as he stomped towards the door. “Sterling you got to get over what happened. It wasn’t your fault,” Matt said as he tried to put his hand on Sterling’s shoulder, but before he could Sterling spun around pointing the end of his crossbow pointblank between Matt’s eyes. “Stay out of it Matt, I don’t care if we’re technically blood, I will take you out if you get in my way. And if you try to do this yourself and get in trouble, I’m not bailing you out,” Sterling threatened. Sterling collapsed his crossbow putting it on his back and turned to the door. As he walked out he stopped and looked back for a second saying in a sad tone, “And it was my fault.” He walked out slamming the door. “What did he mean by it was his fault?” Blake asked. Matt and Sterling sat the girls down with a few sodas in Clancy’s crude living room and told them the story.

                “Sterling was one of the best we Beacon had to offer. Short of me and Jared he was the best fighter we had, but he wanted to be the best. So shortly before graduation he took his team on a mission a very dangerous one, but one that would push them to the top of the rankings. A week past after they were supposed to return and we received no communication from them. Ozpin sent me and MRLN to find them. It took us three days but we managed to find Sterling. He had had the dust beaten out of him and he fell into a coma as soon as we found him,” Matt said. “What happened to him?” Ruby asked. “We don’t know. He was found slummed against a rock with no signs of a fight around him. However, his body was covered in all kinds of wounds ranging from broken bones, blade cuts, and bullet wounds to slashes from Grimm claws, burns, and Grimm bite marks. It was like he had been attacked by everything but the kitchen sink,” Clancy answered. “We searched and search and sent several other search parties out but we never found the rest of his team. Sterling woke from his coma a little over a week later but he had amnesia about what happened. All he could remember was it was bad. After he got out of the hospital he refused to work with a team again. Luckily gradation was the next week and he didn’t need a team for practical examinations anymore. He’s been working alone ever since,” Matt said. “Sterling blames himself for his team’s fate since he talked them into the mission,” Clancy added.

                “Wow, that’s hard core, and he’s your brother,” Yang said. “Yeah well not to him, Sterling’s been broken ever since that day he hasn’t been the same. When we found out we were siblings he just checked out. He just walked away. He either didn’t care or he didn’t want to get too close. I figured that he didn’t want to risk getting hurt from losing someone close to him,” Matt said. “So what do we do now?” Indigo asked. “We ignore the stubborn fool and help, and take out this group of thugs,” Clancy said. “How?” Weiss asked. “We make them angry,” Matt said deviously.

                “Indy start making dust charges and a pile of rounds and get your gear together,” Clancy said. “Girls help Indigo but be careful, I can’t imagine how many ways you could blow your selves up,” Matt added. “Right,” the five girls said in unison. Matt quickly checked all his weapons making sure the clips were full and the chambers loaded while Clancy grabbed some vials of dust from behind the counter to refill his jacket. “Where are you guys going?” Ruby asked. “To light a fire under these thugs,” Matt said as he and Clancy left.

                “So do you girls know anything about dust?” Indigo asked team RWBY. “Well I know how to make dust rounds,” Ruby said. “I’m a Schnee we’re breath dust,” Weiss said. “Good Ruby you can start assembling rounds and Weiss you can help me mix dust. What about you two?” Indy asked Blake and Yang. “Not really with dust but I know a thing or two about mechanical stuff,” Yang said. Indy dug out a manual and handed it to Yang. “There’s a pile of components in the lab. Follow the instruction in this manual to assemble the dust charges,” she said. “What about me?” Blake asked. “Cover the counter, the store is still open,” Indigo said.

                Indigo and the girls all went to work on their various tasks. Ruby sat at a bullet press filling shells with gun powder and dust and then capping them with a round. Weiss watched over several cauldrons of dust making sure the ingredients were mixing properly and not exploding. Yang sat at a work bench putting together charges, setting them aside to be filled with dust later and Blake sat behind the counter in the main shop with a book in hand, lazily watching over the empty shop while reading.

                As they all worked Indigo was running around working on various sub projects when they heard a crash. “Dust it,” Yang cursed. Indigo walked over to find Yang had accidentally knocked over a pile of casings and some of them broke. “It’s alright,” Indigo said as she knelt down and touched the broken casings. The broken casings emitted a blue aura and they pulled themselves back together, fusing at the cracks to perfectly repair them as if they had never broken. “Hey Indigo I need more casings,” Ruby said as she walked up and tripped knocking over a couple tanks of dust. Luckily it was non-volatile and didn’t explode, but the dust spilled out and all mixed together. Indigo groaned. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Ruby pleaded as she stood the tanks back up. “Don’t worry,” Indy said as she touched the pile of mixed dust. “But it’s a complete lose, there’s no way you could separate that,” Yang said. “Yes I can,” Indy said. The pile glowed with a blue aura like the casings and it floated up. It then perfectly separated and sorted into the tanks. “How did you do that?” Ruby asked.

                “Every huntress has a semblance. Mine is the power to separate or fuse,” Indigo said. “Wait you’re a huntress, I thought you were dust chemist,” Yang said. “I attended Haven but decided to become a dust chemist after graduation, so I talked Clancy into being my mentor,” she said without her stutter for once. “Hey what happened to your stutter?” Ruby asked. “It only shows around new people. Once I get to know someone the stutter fades,” she explained. “You and Clancy are two of a kind aren’t you, preferring to spend time with dust rather than other people?” Yang said.  “Oh ah,” Indigo started to stutter again as she turned red in embarrassment from being compared to Clancy. “Well anyway I think we have enough charges rounds and dust, why don’t we take a break?” Indigo said trying to change the subject.

                The five girls got together with some sodas on a group of couches in the main shop that Clancy used for consultations on custom work. “You do realize we’re all wondering about you and Clancy right?” Yang asked Indigo. “Ah, hey what kind of dust do you guys usually use in combat?” Indigo asked trying to change the subject. “Oh no you’re not pulling that again, spill it you got a crush on Matt’s brother don’t you?” Yang asked. “Ah well, yeah I guess I so,” Indigo admitted. “I knew it,” Yang said. “So how do you fall for a guy like that?” Weiss asked. “The same way Ringo fell for Matt I’m guessing,” Blake guessed. “Or how you fell for Sun,” Ruby added making Blake blush. “Well it didn’t start that way. When I first met Clancy, I begged him to make me his apprentice for over a month before he gave up and accepted me as his apprentice, and even after that it was a year before he dropped the whole tough guy act. But after that he started to mellow out and I started to see him in a different light. He was kind, smart, and had a good sense of humor but still humble by most standards. Working so close with him I developed feeling for him,” Indy said. “So then you’re dating?” Ruby asked. “Oh dust no, Clancy’s sweet but he is completely oblivious to matters of the heart. He’d probably marry a huge dust crystal if he could. For now, I just stay close and wait for him to notice me in that way,” Indy said.

                Just then Matt and Clancy walked in laughing. “Oh and the time we put that thing in Goodwitch’s desk,” Matt said and they burst into laughter again. “Where have you guys been?” Weiss asked. “Well we found out there was a certain bar the Grim Claw like to hang out at, so we did a little redecorating,” Matt said. “What kind of redecorating?” Blake asked. “We tagged the whole place in slow burning dust calling them Grim Slobs,” Clancy said. “I’d say we got till tonight before the whole gang shows up for revenge,” Matt said happily. “WHAT!” the five girls yelled in disbelief. “You two decided to tick off the entire gang, how is that a plan?!” Weiss demanded to know. “Because then the fight will be on our terms. We’ll plant charges to thin them out and then clean up the rest,” Matt said.

                The seven off them started to prepare. They planted dust charges under loose cobblestones in the street and various other places and set up other traps around Clancy’s shop and around the local street. Indigo was setting up a sniper’s nest in the widow’s walk on top of the shop. She had drawn her gun from her drop leg holster. It looked like a sawed off lever action revolver rifle. She clicked a switch and it transformed a barrel extension swung into place, the handle extended into a full stock, and a scope flipped into place. After that she loaded vials of dust into her gauntlet that she used to coat things in dust. The girls all made sure their weapons were in working order and Clancy loaned Weiss some vials of special dust to use plus a few clips of special dust rounds for Blake to use for her semblance.

                As the sun began to set, the group took their positions. Indy hid in her sniper’s nest while the girls of team RWBY took positions on the roof tops to surround the thugs. Matt and Clancy were just sitting on the porch playing cards, playing the bait. “Are we sure this is going to work? I mean what do we do if we’re way out number us?” Weiss asked the others through her scroll. “Don’t worry Ice Queen, there a migrant group of thugs. This guy can’t have that many guys, it’d be impossible to control them all on the move and I doubt they have much combat training. 20 guys max, I mean come on Yang could take that many guys in her sleep,” Matt assured her.

                Then a group of about twenty of so thugs came walking up the road carrying swords, rifles, and other weapons. They all marched up to the shop and lined up menacingly in front of Matt and Clancy. “Can we help you?” Matt asked them sarcastically. One of the thugs that was larger than the rest stepped forward speaking for the group, “You disrespected our gang, you’re going to pay.” “Alright how’s two lien sound?” Matt joked. “Not funny,” the leader thug said. “Alright, how’s this for funny?” Clancy said holding up a detonator and pressing the button. Several dust charges went off under the feet of the thugs and they were frozen to their necks in ice. “Well I can’t speak for them but I think its historical,” Matt joked. “You’re going to pay!” the lead thug threatened and then he whistled loudly.

                They heard a rumbling and a large number of muscle cars and pickup trucks came up the road, all filled with thugs like the ones they had just iced. The thugs piled out of their vehicles all armed. Matt tapped his earpiece saying, “Alright guys this may be a little harder than we thought.” The lead thug yelled a battle cry and they charged. “Now,” Matt said into his earpiece and pressed the button on another detonator. Earth dust charges in the ground went off and large walls of stone rose up to prevent the thugs from reaching the shop. Indigo started firing from her sniper’s nest and the girls of team RWBY pounced from their perches and began to take out thugs. Matt bolted over the wall with his scythe drawn and Clancy floated over with gravity dust.

                As he came down Clancy forming a large shuriken made of wind dust throwing it and blowing away several thugs. He spun the dial again and it landed on fire dust. The markings on his jacket turned red and fire dust came out of his sleeve. The dust came together to form a solid crystal great sword that trailed fire with every swing. At one point he a thug tried to block his strike with his sword but Clancy’s fire dust sword melted through his opponent’s metal sword and struck the thug. He then converted the sword back to powdered dust and manipulated the cloud to envelope a few thugs. He snapped and the dust burst into fire around the thugs. He dialed his jacket again and a bow of lightning dust formed in his hand. He drew the bow and fired. As the arrow flew through the air it split into several bolts of lightning striking down several goons.

                Indigo was sniping thugs left and right. One of the few places Indigo was comfortable was behind the scope of a rifle. She had her goggles down over her eyes, the magnifying lenses over one eye were down, and lined up to the scope. However, she was so in the zone that she didn’t notice the thug jumping down from another roof and sneaking up behind her. He was about to strike her over the head when he stepped on a twig alerting her. She quickly spun around letting out dust in her gauntlet. She slammed her palm into him and the dust detonated within a second. She leaped from her sniper’s nest just as the thug exploded. She converted her rifle down to its short form. She shot two more thugs as she landed. She round house kicked another thug as she converted he gun in its sword form. She clicked her gauntlet so it would use dust from a different vial and ran her hand along the side of her blade coating it in yellow lightning dust. She spun around slashing, sending out a spiral of lighting in all directions.

                The seven of them were blowing through thugs left and right but they were not getting very far. Eventually the thugs were able to route team RWBY, Matt, Clancy, and Indigo into a corner. They were surrounded. “I don’t like this,” Ruby said. Clancy looked over his dust supply realizing he was running low as was Indigo. “It looks like it,” Clancy said. “Dust, Clancy If we’re going out like this there’s something I need to tell you,” Indigo said ready to spill her heart to him. “That you have a crush on me, I know,” Clancy said. “What?” she said in confusion. “I’m not as oblivious as I look Indy, and if we’re going down I just want you to know, I feel the same way,” Clancy said. Indigo was on the verge of crying.

                The thugs were all about to pounce when an arrow flew in and struck the axe one of the thugs who was about to strike was holding. The head of the axe was torn off and it was carried through the air sticking the axe head to a wall with the arrow threaded through a hole in it. The thugs were aw struck by the amazing shot especially there was no shooter in sight. Several more arrows flew in out of nowhere each one glowing a bright silver light and trailing long lines of silver light. As each one struck a thug they let out a burst of searing light that blew away nearly half the thugs.

                Lying prone on a roof top a half mile away was Sterling, his crossbow in its log range mode on a bipod and three glyphs in front of the muzzle to power up the shots. Another glyph formed under him and he teleported above the remaining thugs, firing as he dropped on them but none of them hit any thugs, instead large shards of glass erupted from the ground. He hit the ground converting to his sword. He drew a several light glyphs that fired beams of searing light out. As the beams flew out striking thugs they would hit the pillars of glass reflecting about and hitting more thugs. “Have a change of heart Sterling?” Matt asked the crossbow wielder. As the thugs all staggered to regroup Sterling turned to Matt and Clancy, “Maybe your right, I do need to trust someone.” The three brothers lined up side by side facing the thugs. “You want the boss I assume?” Clancy asked Sterling. “He’s the big one, in the middle,” Sterling said as he converted his sword to its crossbow mode. The thugs charged. Sterling aimed his crossbow forming several glyphs on the end for power. Matt converted his sword to its scythe mode and drew a glyph engulfing the blade in lightning. Clancy dialed several forms of dust on his coat and globs of dust floated out of his jacket forming spheres of pure dust. Matt swung his scythe sending out a wave of lightning while Sterling fires a high powered arrow and Clancy flicked his wrists sending his dust flying. The three attacks struck them group of thugs knocking all of them out except for the leader. He tried to make a run for it but Sterling was too quick, reloading and firing an ice dust arrow at him freezing him solid.

                The cops showed up and carted away the thugs. Sterling made sure the cops registered that he was responsible for the leaders capture. After that all anyone wanted to do was relax but all Indigo wanted to do was realize what would come of her and Clancy’s confessions. They were just sitting on the counter talking and laughing, there relationship evolving before their eyes. Matt, Sterling, and the girls of team RWBY were sitting on the couches in the shop watching the two new love birds. “Guess I lost the pool,” Sterling joked. “What are you talking about?” Weiss asked Sterling who was being surprisingly friendlier than before. “We had a pool going on how long it would take for Clancy to get a girlfriend. My money was that it would never happen,” Sterling said. “So who won then?” Ruby asked. “If I recall, Ringo was the only one that bet it would even happen. Hey Matt you and Ringo still a thing?” Sterling asked his brother. “Yeah that reminds me,” Matt said and he turned towards Clancy. “Hey Clancy how long until you finish that dust I came for?” he asked. “I already finished the whole thing for you,” Clancy said. He leaned back behind the counter and came back up with a small box. Matt walked over and took a look inside. “You just need to add the finishing touches,” Clancy said as he closed the box and passed it to Matt. “Thanks bro. You know you really should try coming back to Beacon once and a while, we’d love to have you lecture,” Matt said. “Maybe sometime later this semester, right now I just want to focus on what I got here,” Clancy said as he looked deeply into Indigo’s eyes.

                The next day Matt and the girls caught the train back to Vale, waving to Matt’s brothers and Indigo on the station platform as the train pulled out. The train ride back was uneventful and they reached Vale. They did their best to sneak back on to campus and into Matt’s office. “Alright now I just got to figure out how to calm Ringo down enough to explain,” Matt said under his breath. Suddenly Ringo jumped down from her perch hanging from some vines she grew in the ceiling. “MATT! HOW DARE YOU FORGET?!” she yelled as she tried to attack him with her nails. Matt rolled out of the way and pulled the box from his bag. He quickly held up the box to her opening it, and she stopped dead.

                “Of course I didn’t forget, I’d never forget, I just needed time to finish this,” he said in his defense. She calmed down and took the box looking at its contents wide eyed. It was an ornate pendant designed with vines on one side and lightning on the other with a pair of halved dust crystals on blue and one green. Matt took the pendant out of the box and stepped behind Ringo. He pushed her hair to the side and put the pendant around her neck. “I meant to give you this last week but it took me longer to make than I thought. I had to go all the way to Magnum Opus to get what I needed,” Matt aid. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said in a far more loving tone as she turned to him. “Well it gave me a chance to see Clancy, plus he and Indigo finally realized how they feel about each other so you win the pool, and I ran into Sterling,” Matt said. “Was Sterling a jerk like usual?” she asked. “Actually I think I finally managed to get him to mellow out,” he said. “Oh I almost forgot the best part,” he said as he turned her around and tapped the crystal in the pendant three times. It began to glow brighter and something projected out of it. Pictures of Matt and her together and Ringo began to shed a tear of happiness. “This is so sweet,” Ruby whispered to her teammates as they watched the touching scene. Ringo spun around and planted a long kiss on Matt’s lips, one long enough to nearly suffocate him. He just managed to push her off for a second to say to Ruby and the girls, “I’ll see you girls in class,” signaling they should get lost. The promptly filed out of the office just as Ringo lovingly pounced on Matt. “Yeesh, what a relationship,” Weiss said as she rolled her eyes and the girls left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on Clancy Philosiph go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Clancy-Philosiph-655707561?q=Zummerz%2F61617378&qo=2
> 
> For more information on Indigo Jay go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Indigo-Jay-655707892?q=Zummerz%2F61617378&qo=1
> 
> For more information on Sterling Icarus go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Sterling-Icarus-655708062?q=Zummerz%2F61617378&qo=0


	14. The Greatest Show on Remnant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After attending a circus, Matt and the RWBY girls run into a group of Matt's former students investigating a rash of robberies, dozens of them at once. Now they have to help this group of huntsmen and huntresses track down the true culprit and save the circus.

 

                Team RWBY was in Matt’s apartment, he often let them in to use his huge TV. Tonight they were watching the season premiere of some trash reality TV show. They heard the door open and close and turned to see Matt walking in with a stressed look. “Agh,” he groaned as he walk in and grabbed a soda from the fridge. “Something wrong?” Ruby asked as she and the girls leaned over the back of the couch. “I hate detention duty,” he griped as he flopped down into a recliner and opened the foot rest. He sighed as his stresses melted away. “I hate detention duty. If Goodwitch wants detentions to be cleaning the entire cafeteria after the dinner rush, why can’t she proctor it herself? It takes forever,” he griped. “Well you wouldn’t have to proctor detention if you didn’t give Cardin and his team detention every other day,” Weiss said. “If I don’t who will? Someone has to make sure Cardin and his goons understand they can’t pick on people,” Matt said. He quickly chugged down half his soda and then quickly burped loudly. “Ew!” Weiss and Blake said in discussed. “Please that’s nothing compared to what I’ve heard come out of Ruby and Yang,” Matt said in a tone that they couldn’t tell was serious or not. “Matt!” the sisters said in disapproval. “Anyway what are we watching?” he asked. “Vale’s Got Talent,” Yang said. “I swear these shows are all starting to become the same,” Matt said. The show went to commercial and the first one got their attention.

                _A man in a colorful suit, mask, and top had appeared under a single spotlight. “Enter the mystery…” he began to say. He gestured his arms out both ways finishing, “Of Enigma!” The rest of the lighting went on lighting up the area behind him revealing acrobats, clowns, and exotic animals in colorful costumes and all of them wearing masks. A large name in a whimsically font read “Enigma Circus”. “The Enigma Circus, coming to Vale, first show tomorrow,” said a narrator and the commercial ended._

                “Oh the circus is coming to town, we haven’t gone in forever,” Ruby said. “Yeah not in what is it 6 years?” Yang added. “I don’t think I’ve actually been to a circus,” Weiss said. “Oh you don’t know what you’re missing,” Yang said. “I never really saw the reason in going to one. I mean we can already do half the stuff those acrobats can do, I never really cared for clown based comedy, and we deal with Grimm which are far more exotic and dangerous than those animals,” Blake said. “There’s far more to a circus than just that. It’s the atmosphere, the energy, the showmanship; trust me you need to go to a circus at least once in your life. No matter how old you are they always bring out one’s childlike wonder,” Matt said. “Dust I really want to go,” Ruby said. Matt pulled out his scroll and looked something up on the internet. “Well then let’s go,” he said as he hit the checkout button on show tickets.

                The next night they five of them walked onto the Vale fairground that was the site of the Enigma Circus. A huge multi colored tent sat in the center surrounded by a village of food stalls, games, rides, and side shows. The show wouldn’t start for a while so they spent some time enjoying the carnival grounds. Ruby ended up making off with a large stuffed Bear dressed as a clown from a shooting gallery. Yang had walked up to an old fashion strength testing game. As she reached the front of the line the burly man running the game and the other strong looking men around the game all laughed. She declined to take the hammer and just punched the point she was supposed to hit with her bare fist, not only ringing the bell but completely knocking it off. The men’s jaws dropped as she walked off with her prize, a hat saying “strongest in Remnant.” She looked over her shoulder and playfully stuck her tongue out at the men as she walked away. Weiss was walking around taking in her surroundings when she accidently walked into a seltzer squirt battle between two clowns. She was about to be blasted by both clowns in the cross fire in her oblivious stair. However, she formed two glyphs on either side of her freezing the seltzer midair all the way back to the clowns’ bottles. The clowns were stupefied but Weiss just continued walking as if it never happened. As for Blake, she had found a food stand that sold funnel fish. It was a horrific dish of a cooked fish on a stick dunked in funnel cake batter and deep fried. Of course for a cat Faunus it was utter genius. 

                The five of them reconvened shortly before the show and walked to the main tent. On the way they saw one of the side shows, the snake charmer. It was a female snake charmer about Matt’s age. She had long dark green hair in a ponytail hanging over her shoulder that looked like a rattlesnake tail. She wore a green gypsy style belly shirt with gold and black detail, form fitting green pants with a black lacing detail up the side of one leg exposing skin under a small green sarong miniskirt with gold coin gypsy belt, scrappy black heels, and a gypsy head scarf tied around her head. Extending out from her tailbone was a long snake Faunus tail and she had five colorful snakes coiled and draped across her body. She danced slowly around her small stage guiding the movements of her snakes around her body as she hummed a unique tune. “Creepy,” Ruby said as they walked past.

                The grabbed some drinks, circus peanuts, and a 10 gallon bucket of popcorn and entered the tent to take their seats. It was a huge tent with three rings and various rigging equipment hanging from the posts. They took their seats and the lights dimmed as the show started show started. A single spot light shined down on a pedestal in the center ring with who they assumed was the ringmaster. 

                All the performers in the Enigma Circus wore masks and he was no exception wearing a dark red carnival style mask that matched his messy red hair and Faunus ears. He had a large green top hat with a gold ribbon that extended out hanging of the back and held a card that said 10/6 on it that he held tipped down over his eyes and his rabbit ears stuck up through the front where the brim met the rest of the hat. He wore a white dress shirt under a vest with a purple and gold diamond pattern, a green jacket with a gold cuffs and a purple collar, a large gold bowtie, purple pants, leather shoes, and a gold bandana hung out his back pocket. Over his shoulder he held a large cartoonish sized mallet.

                He looked up to the crowd and spoke, “Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, welcome to the mystery.” Another spot light went on and shined down on a young girl on another pedestal. She was incredibly small, about four foot eight inches with long blonde hair, blonde bunny ears and a black hairband behind them. She wore a frilly light blue dress with black detail under white vest, black and white horizontal striped stockings, black and white sneakers, white dress cuffs, and round black glasses.

                She waved to the crowd with a touch of apprehension. The ringmaster swung his hammer down onto a large red prop button and a spring launching platform in the girl’s pedestal went off launching her into the air. She back flipped through the air, landed perfectly on a large acrobat ball, and began doing tricks. The lights went on, a laser lightshow and pyro technics display went off, and music sounded as all the performers paraded out. The girls were fascinated but Matt had an odd feeling he had seen that ringmaster and young acrobat somewhere before.

                There were many plenty of the usual circus acts; elephants, lion tamer, trapeze artists, and of course clowns. The next act was a knife thrower. He was a young Faunus with hyena ears and black hair. He wore an off white dress shirt with the sleeves cuffed at the elbow under a black vest, a red scarf, a black newsboy hat with his hyena ears sticking out, black pants, a blue belt, and brown leather shoes.

                The young man was a total showoff. He threw knives at the target board around his attractive female target. Then he threw backwards, left handed, and even in the middle of a cartwheel. Next they moved onto the wheel of death and the assistant was strapped to the spinning target wheel. The thrower began throwing knives one by one and then two by two striking the wheel within millimeters of the girl. The girl moved back to the stationary board and began to juggle balls. The thrower began throwing knives and sticking the balls to the board. She placed an apple on her head and the thrower stuck it to the board. She held up a ring between her fingers and he threw a knife strait through it, sticking it to the board. Then came the show stopper. She took out a red clown nose and looked straight up so the nose was above her. He began to take aim but then he acted like he was giving up, shrugging his shoulders, and throwing the knife up in the air. He turned to walk away but then he spun around kicking the knife as it came down and it flew straight into the red nose sticking it to the board. The crowd ate it up. “That was amazing!” Weiss said to the others. “I’ve never seen anyone able to throw a knife like that, and Matt’s pretty good with a knife,” Yang said. They looked to Matt but he was just looking at the knife thrower. Just like the ringmaster and acrobat earlier, he looked very familiar.

                The next act was a high wire act with no net. A spot light flashed on one of the high platforms on one of the tent’s supports where a small 2’ by 2’ by 2’ box sat. The lid opened from the inside and two legs in striped stocking unfolded out followed by two arms and then two blonde rabbit ears. The small rabbit faunus acrobat from the beginning of the show popped her head out of the box and pushed herself out. The girls of RWBY were stupefied. “How did she fit in that tiny box?” Weiss asked in fascination. “I had a student that could do that,” Matt said.   

                She waved to the crowd and stepped onto the wire with a parasol in hand. Carefully she walked across the wire. She reached the middle and stopped. She dropped the parasol and she brought one leg up parallel to her torso so her legs were parallel but pointed opposite directions. She then fell forward landing in a perfect split along the wire. She turned to sit on the wire as the wire began to slack a little giving it some bounce. She began to bounce her weight and bounced to her feet on the line. She bounce doing backflips, and then dropping below the line on her third backflip catching the line in her hands. The line stretched and then slung her into the air as it recoiled and she landed back on it. She fell back on the line bouncing back up and forward. She bounced back off her chest and bounced into the air turning a quarter circle and landing on her back. As her back made contact she bent her back and limbs locking them behind her and keeping her on the wire as she bounced around it a little before releasing her limbs and bounced to her feed and did a pirouette on the wire as it tightened again. She cartwheeled down the wire a bit and the dropped backwards and crab walked along the line back to the platform. She straightened herself out and waved to the crowd signifying her act was done and the crowd applauded. “And you said a huntress could do anything these guys could do,” Yang said to Blake. “I’ll admit it, I have never seen a huntress or huntsman do anything like that,” Blake admitted. “I think I may have,” Matt said still feeling like he knew her.

                After another few acts was the strongman act, or in this case the strongwoman act. She had long reddish brown hair under a red beanie. She wore a tied off red plaid shirt, blue denim shorts, black suspenders, brown leather boots, and a wide beaver tail. Her act was a lumberjack theme and she began lifting huge logs and bench pressing trucks. She juggled logs and then took and axe, chopping the logs in half as they came down. For her final trick she climbed a vertically standing. When she reached the top she cracked her knuckles. She jumped up and punched down on the log. She jumped down to the ground and snapped her finger; the log fell apart in two halves. The crowd applauded. “That was some punch,” Ruby said. “Please I could split ten of those logs in one punch,” Yang boasted. Matt was looking at the strongwoman. Again one of the performers looked familiar to him.

                The show ended with the usual human cannonball act and ended as the performers paraded around the tent waving goodbye. Matt and the girls left the tent. The girls were all talking about the show but Matt was pensive. He hadn’t seen this circus before but these people were so familiar. “Hey Matt what’s the deal? You haven’t said a word?” Yang asked as they reached his car Eligos. “There’s something about some of those performers that seems familiar. I need to check something,” he said as he pressed a button on the key remote. The trunk opened and the bottom opened up revealing a weapons rack with his sword scythe, submachineguns, talons, and harness. He switch out the under arm holsters he had on with his revolvers for his harness and holstered his weapons. “Don’t suppose you have any more toys in there?” Yang asked. Matt pressed a button on the remote and another weapons rack flipped in with the girls’ weapons.

Matt and the girls skirted the fairground and snuck into the performers’ tent area. “What are we doing here?” Weiss asked. “Some of those performers seem familiar but I can’t put my finger on it. Plus I never trust anyone who’s face I can’t see,” Matt said as they crouched behind some barrels. Just then four people snuck by, it was the ringmaster, acrobat, knife thrower, and strongwoman. “Well that’s mysterious,” Matt said.

                The four performers snuck off the fairground and into an alley way but none of them had their masks on from before. They peered around a corner observing a shadowy figure across the street where they all felt something metal grab them by the shoulders and pull them back. They spun around drawing their weapons. The ringmaster pulled out the mallet from the show converting it into a large under the arm cannon. The acrobat drew a pair of midsized bladed weapons with blades that appeared to be made of glass turning them into submachineguns. The knife thrower drew a large pistol like weapon from along his back hips and the strongwoman pulled out a double bladed axe converting it to a shotgun. When they turned to face their attacker, they saw Matt had pulled them back with his talons in their grappling form. His submachine where up and his talons were aiming their guns as the girls behind him all aimed their own weapons.

                The air was still, the only sound being of cars driving by on nearby roads. “Professor Vert?” the knife thrower asked. “Doyle?” Matt returned. “Two rabbits, a beaver, and a hyena, I should have known, Matt said as he holstered his guns and returned his talons to their scabbards under his arms as the four performers compacted and holstered their weapons. “Matt, what’s going on?” Ruby asked; she and her team with their weapons still up. “Stand down girls, they’re huntsman,” Matt said. “More people you went to school with?” Weiss said in disbelief. “No former students of mine,” he said.

                “Professor!” the tiny rabbit Faucus acrobat squealed in glee to see him as she bounced up and down doing a binky like happy rabbits do and she bounced over and hugged him. “Hey, there’s my favorite bunny,” Matt said as he ruffled her rabbit ears. She then realized she was being watched by the RWBY girls and quickly hid behind him, stooping her rabbit ears in front of her face. “Same old Elica I see,” Matt joked.

                “Matt who are these people?” Weiss demanded to know. “Girls meet one of the wackiest teams I ever trained, team DERR,” he said. “Their leader Doyle Twist,” he said gesturing to the hyena Faunus who tipped his hat. “Reviol Vunderkind,” he said gesturing to the top hatted rabbit Faunus who removed his hat and bowed slightly. “Hazel Redwood,” he gestured towards the tall female beaver Faunus. “And this shy little thing is Elica Vunderkind, Reviol’s little sister,” he said spinning to get her out from hiding behind him only for her to dash behind her brother. She popped her head out quickly and said “hello,” in a meek voice and hid behind her brother again. “She’ll never change,” Matt said when he realized he stepped in something gross in the grimy alley way. “You mind if we talk somewhere a little more hospitable? I got a buddy that runs a bar around the corner,” Matt suggested.

                Hey walked to Razor Silver’s bar the Moon’s Den around the corner. “Alright now why don’t you tell me why four huntsmen and huntresses are doing in a circus,” Matt said. Doyle reached into a black satchel he didn’t have with him during the show. He dug around a bit for something, throwing out various junk until he pulled out a ball of fur. “Oh there you are Deuce,” he said to the ball. The ball uncurled into a ferret with a sable fur pattern. “Rat!” Weiss screamed. “What rat?!” Razor demanded as he unpacked his claws. “Relax is a ferret guys,” Matt said. The animal scurried onto Doyle head and he finally found his scroll in the bag. He opened a page on it and handed it to Matt while the RWBY girls crowded around him to read over his shoulder.

                Matt pushed his glasses up his nose and began reading, “Let’s see here, da, da, da, da. Okay so there’s been a string of mass robberies across Remnant and the Enigma Circus was in town whenever one happened. So What? Robberies happen all the time, there are pretty good odds that someone would get robbed while they were in town,” Matt said. “You don’t get it professor…” Reviol began to say. “Call me Matt, professor makes me feel old,” Matt interrupted. “Like I was saying, it’s not one robbery. Every time the Enigma Circus is in town, dozens of robberies occur at the same time,” Reviol said finishing his thought. “All at the same time?” Ruby asked. “Yep,” Hazel said. “So then the whole circus is in on it. They just sneak out of the circus at night, rob places, and then sneak back. It so obvious,” Blake said. “Wrong, before we decided to go undercover in the circus we staked it out and there was no nightly exodus of circus performers running off to rob places,” Doyle said. “So the next logical step was to join the show?” Matt said sarcastically. Elica popped out from her hiding spot behind Reviol saying quickly, “No,” ducking back behind him when people started focusing on her. She poked back out and said, “We stalked to show for through three towns before that.”

                Hazel was getting fed up with Elica’s shyness. “Doyle you got anymore Elica bait?” she asked her leader. Doyle dug around in his bag and handed her something under the table. Hazel held up the object Doyle handed her, a large fresh carrot. Elica’s attention was immediately drawn to the vegetable. She jumped at the carrot and Hazel grabbed her pulling her into her lap. “Elly you got to get over your shyness,” Hazel said to Elica who was dwarfed by the beaver Faunus. The dwarf rabbit Faunus pouted. “How did you guys manage to get into the circus anyway?” Weiss asked.  “Well it wasn’t too hard for us,” Elica said hiding behind her ears. “My sister and I grew up in a circus so we know how to impress circus folk. After that it was easy to get Doyle and Hazel in,” Reviol said.  “So what have you found out?” Ruby asked. “Well we were following a shadowy figure sneaking off the fair ground when you grabbed us,” Doyle said sarcastically. Matt felt guilty for screwing up their operation. “With all those thieves the cops must have caught at least one of them?” Yang asked. “They did, but all the people they caught had no memory of what they did,” Hazel said.

                Then there was the sound of glass shattering up the street. “What was that?” Elica asked as she coward in Hazel’s lap. They ran outside to see hordes of people stealing merchandise from various stores. One of the thieves ran by and Doyle grabbed him pulling of his hood. His eyes were glassed over and he appeared to be in a vegetative state but still functional. “What the?” Doyle said. “He looks like a zombie,” Ruby said. “I obey,” the thief said. He started to walk away but Matt gave him a quick shock knocking him out. “I don’t think these people are doing this of their own will,” Matt said.

                Matt stepped over to his car and popped the truck flipping opening the weapons racks, specifically the racks of various ammunition clips and belts. He started tossing munitions to everyone and reloaded his own weapons. Ruby looked at the new bullets closely noticing that the heads weren’t made of any material she had seen. “Matt what kind of rounds are these?” she asked. “Clancy’s latest invention, chalk rounds,” he said. “What are those going to do? Wouldn’t they just shatter when fired?” Weiss asked. “Clancy figured out a formula that holds the chalk together during the ignition of the gunpowder but then the chalk bullet shatters on impact. At worst they a chalky mark on the target and a bruise. They can be laced with dust for various effects. They won’t hurt them very bad but these are laced with ice dust so they will incapacitate them,” he said. He started looking through the various rounds. “Hey Doyle remind me what caliber you use again,” Matt said. “A standard deck, but I could use some extra ice dust vials,” Doyle said holding up a deck of cards. He flicked a release opening a slot and fed in the deck into the oversized pistol. He then opened it like a center break pistol and slid a few ice dust vials into slots in the gun. “What kind of damage can a playing card do?” Blake asked. “The Joker coats each card in dust from one of the vials in it. The cards don’t do the damage, the dust does,” Doyle said. They all scattered and started to freeze thieves, but when they started disabling zombie thieves they turned on them attacking them with pipes and improvised weapons.

                Doyle was a quick shot with his card gun Joker, freezing five zombie thieves in less than a second. A zombie thief swung a pipe at him but he made as low spinning kick knocking the guy down and then froze him to the street. He shot another few cards into the air activating his semblance. The cards all changed trajectories and froze several more zombie thieves. Two more guys tried to strike him from behind. He converted his pistol to a cane form and spun around blocking them before knocking the pipes from their hands then converting the cane back to the pistol form and froze them.

                Reviol drew out his hammer. He spun around to build momentum slamming the mallet into the ground causing a row of ice crystals to erupt from the ground freezing a few zombie thieves. He swung around and slammed the mallet into another guy freezing him. Another group charged him but he looked them in the eyes and his own eyes flashed as his semblance activated. All the charging thugs suddenly became dizzy with doubled and blurry vision. The all began to stagger about as Reviol smashed them ground again and ice dust froze them all. He then converted his hammer to its cannon form and fired at a horde of zombie thieves charging him, freezing them all.

                Hazel pulled out her axe converting it to its shotgun form and starter blasting zombie thieves left and right. She converted it back to an axe and swung it pulling the trigger to coat the blade in dust sending out a wave of freezing dust to freeze another group of zombie thieves. However while she was basking in her own success, a bunch of zombie thugs dog piled on top of her followed by more zombies thieves. She activated her semblance and she started to grow and grow until she reached thirty feet tall. She knocked back the thieves and they shrunk back down to her normal size to freeze them.

                Elica held her own surprisingly well in combat despite her shy personality. She easily cut through several zombie thieves with her glass blades. The weapons may seem fragile but they struck quite hard freezing targets in the process. She struck another zombie but he blocked it with a tire iron and the blade shattered. She rolled out of the way of another zombie thief’s attack converting one of her guns to its submachinegun form and fired, freezing the thieves. She clicked a switch on her broken blade activating a vial of glass dust in it and the blade restored itself. She converted the other and fired a barrage at several more zombie thieves. She then jumped incredibly high over more thieves raining freezing rounds on them. She used her semblance to form a rabbit hole portal and dove in. another hole opened and she flew out firing. As she froze another few thieves she noticed a shadowy figure ducking down an alley. “One’s getting away!” she called to the others but they were all busy. She ran after the shadowy figure on her own. “Elica wait!” her brother called to her as she ran down the alley. Elica cautiously walked down the dark alley looking for the shadowy figure. “Where are you?” she muttered to herself as she walked past a dumpster. Suddenly the cloaked shadowy figure leaped from the shadow of the dumpster.

                Back on the street the others had just finished freezing the last of the thieves when they heard a scream from the alley. “Elica?!” Doyle and Reviol yelled. Doyle and Matt ran to the alley where they was a cloaked figure standing over an unconscious Elica. “Get off of her!” Doyle yelled. The cloaked stranger ran the other way as Matt opened fire with his talons as Doyle fired a barrage at them. One of the shots managed to hit the stranger but they escaped. “Guys!” Reviol yelled kneeling next to his sister. “Dust!” Matt cursed as he and Doyle ran back to them. Matt checked her vitals. She was breathing shallowly, her pulse was weak, and she was unresponsive. Then he noticed a puncture mark in her arm. He took a closer look and realized what it was. He immediately started to suck on the wound and spitting. “What the heck are you doing?!” Weiss asked in disgust. “Poison,” he said quickly between sucks. He tried for several more tries but it wasn’t working. “Dust!” he cursed again as he pulled out his scroll. “This is professor Vert, I need a Bullhead at the corner of Brash street and Cyprus, I have a potential poisoning, have the infirmary ready!” he ordered into the device.

                Fifteen minutes later Matt and teams DERR, and RWBY ran into the Beacon infirmary with Elica on a gurney.  It was a large white room full of shiny medical equipment. “What have we got?” Becky Oobleck asked as she walked in draping a stethoscope around her neck. “What is Becky here for?” Ruby asked. “She’s not just a teacher she’s also the academy’s doctor,” Matt said. Becky held open Elica’s eye with shining a light in it to test response followed by checking her heart with her stethoscope. “You said on your call she may have been poisoned,” Becky inquired. “Injection site is over here,” Matt said gesturing to her arm. Becky took a closer look with her magnifier. “This isn’t an injection site, it’s a bite wound,” she said turning Elica’s arm to reveal three more punctures in a rectangular pattern. “A snake bite I’d say,” she added. “So what do we do?! Where’s the anti-venom?!” Reviol demanded. “Its not that simple. We need to know what kind of snake it was. If we just use any random anti-venom it could kill her. Elica suddenly started to convulse. “DO SOMETHING!” Reviol demanded.

                Suddenly Doyle’s bag started to rustle as his ferret Deuce popped out and scurried onto his head with something in his mouth. “What’s that in the rat’s mouth?” Becky asked. “Ferret,” everyone corrected her. “That’s a snake, why would he have a snake?” Blake asked. “He’s part mongoose he goes after them all the time. He must have snagged it while we were checking on Elica,” Doyle said. Doyle fought with his ferret over the snake carcass and gave it to Becky. “I’ve never seen a snake like this,” she said as she started to make the anti-venom. “HURRY UP!” Reviol demanded. “I got it!” Becky said as she ran up with a syringe. “Hold her down,” Becky ordered. Matt and the three remaining members of team DERR each grabbed and extremity and put their weight on it to keep her still. Becky worked fast and injected her. He convolutions subsided and Becky check her vitals again. She took of her stethoscope saying, “She’s stable for now. All we can do is wait.”

                Becky went about cleaning up equipment while the others sat around Elica waiting for her to recover. They sat around doing little things to busy themselves. Ruby disassembling and cleaning her scythe, Weiss was on her scroll reading financial reports form the SDC, Blake was reading a book, and Yang practiced her moves. Doyle played solitaire by himself and Reviol and Hazel were just sitting on either side of Elica waiting. “Man I knew I should have made her wait,” Reviol said. “What are you talking about?” Ruby asked. “I should have made her wait on entering Beacon. Elica got into Beacon at a younger age than most. She worked so hard to get in even with her disorder,” he said. “What disorder,” she asked. “Elica has what’s call Dissociative Aura Disorder. Basically she has two auras each with its own personality and semblance. If she’s put under the right kind of stress she turns into a different person literally. Her clothes and semblance change, she grows six inches, and her personality completely changes. However, she can change between them herself with concentration. She always wanted to be a huntress ever since that day,” he said. “What day was that?” she asked. “The day she was saved by a huntsman,” he said. Ruby was intrigued and focused her attention on him as he began the story.

“Well like she told you earlier we grew up in a circus. One day when we were little she wandered out of the circus camp and into the nearby woods and group of Beowulfs found her. We heard a scream and a bunch of the adults ran into the woods with makeshift weapons. I had ended up following them myself. We found her balled up in a clearing with a hooded young huntsman holding a pair of dual blades, the remains of a dozen Beowulfs disintegrating. The man converted his blades to some sort of guns holstering them and knelt down to her. He said something too her that got her to look up from her crying. He handed her something, it was some little charm she always keeps with her. The guy picked her up and carried her to us. He gently handed her to my father and walked back to the woods. She said that guy is what inspired her to become a huntress, that and her dual blade combat style,” Reviol said.

                “Reviol was this about six years ago, a few miles east of a town call Applewood?” Matt asked. “Yeah,” he answered. “Did this charm look something like this?” Matt asked holding up what looked like a military dog tag with his emblem of a grim reaper that trailed lightning. “Yeah, where did you get that?” Reviol asked. Matt stood up and started looking around for something. “Hey Becky do you remember where I hid that spare Tempest in here?” he called out to his colleague. “Third bed from the door,” she called back. Matt reached under the bed and pulled out one of his revolver knives. “Why is that here?” Blake asked. “I have hidden weapons all over this school plus a few in the Moon’s Den, Zaffre’s garage, and Rouge’s boutique. Heck there’s over two dozen in my apartment alone,” Matt said. He held up the weapon converting it to its blade form, “did that guy’s blade look like this?” “Yeah how did you know?” Reviol asked. “I only started using the Seraph SMGs about three years ago, before that I always kept these in their place,” he said as he put away the weapon. “You were my student for four years and you never noticed my emblem?” he asked as he took the charm from Reviol. “This is my calling card.” “Calling card?” Yang asked. “Huntsmen and huntresses even when they’re still students are basically celebrities and most of us have a hook, Qrow is famous for being drunk all the time, Misty Keys is also a musician, heck you friend Sun has a fan club just for his abs. Lonan Straight left a custom ace of spades playing card everywhere he would fight and fans would scorer the area looking for that card as a souvenir. My hook was the scythe and the tags. I would always give them to people I would save,” he said. “Wait Matt are you saying?...” Reviol began to ask. “My sophomore year, search and destroy mission to clear out a large pack of Beowulfs that had been seen in the area. We had split up to cover more ground. Reviol that huntsman was me,” Matt said. “But what about the scythe, that guy didn’t have one? Reviol asked. “I broke it in a training the day before and didn’t have time to make repairs. I can’t believe you were my students for four years and you never noticed that the emblem on my back was identical to the one on that charm. I thought that little rabbit Faunus looked familiar on application day,” Matt said.

                “I knew it was you,” they heard from behind them. They looked to see Elica had regained consciousness but was still a little loopy. “Elica!” Reviol exclaimed as he hugged her followed by Hazel. “Matt that was you all those years ago?” she asked Matt. “It would appear it was,” Matt said. “Oh Elica my little bun are you alright?” Hazel asked frantically as she sat on the side of the bed and held the tiny girl close. Matt leaned over and whispered to team RWBY, “Yeah Hazel kind of sees Elica as her little sister and can be a _little_ over protective, and a little too close with her.” Elica managed to weasel out of Hazel’s grip saying, “I’m fine Hazel let go.” She turned back to Matt and repeated, “I knew it was you. I could never forget the guy that saved me in more ways than one,” she said. “What do you mean by that?” Hazel said holding the small bunny.

                “Well, the reason I ran into the forest that day was because of some mean boy,” Elica began to explain. “I was walking around the midway and this mean boy was making fun of my ears, saying that my ears made me weird. I was really hurt and ran into the woods crying. I just kept running and running until I ran into something in a clearing. I looked up and saw it was a Beowulf,” she said as she hid behind her ears scared of the memory. “It turned and looked at me and I just screamed. It was about to slash me with his claws when there was a flash and a crack of thunder and the beowulf’s arm was missing. A few shots rang out and a bunch of bullets flew through the Beowulf killing it. The Grimm disintegrated and I saw the hooded huntsman with his guns aimed towards me. I thought he was going to shoot me but her shot at something behind me. ‘Get down,’ he yelled as I turned to see more Beowulfs. I just curled up in a ball hiding my eyes. I heard slashes, gun shots, and thunder cracks for a few minutes and then silence. I looked up to see the huntsman standing over me and all the Grimm were disintegrating. I just went back to my crying as the men from the circus showed up. The guy knelt down and asked me if I was ok but I just kept crying. “Because I have these stupid things,” I said pulling on my rabbit ears. “Now who would say that?” he asked. ‘The mean boys on the midway, with these things I’m not worth saving.’ He gently pushed my ears up so he could see my face and wiped away my tears. ‘You’re wrong, they just make you worth saving even more,’ he said. I stopped crying and looked at him. ‘You mean it?’ I asked. ‘One of my best friends has a pair of squirrel ears and a tail,’ he said smiling. After that he picked me up and carried me back to the adults from camp. Before he left he handed me this charm as he whispered in my ear, ‘Never let them tell you those ears are bad, they wish they had them themselves.’ Then he left,” she said as she pulled out the dog tag like charm hanging around her neck that was in her top. Matt pulled out another of the tags holding it up, “That was me, but why didn’t you say anything?” Matt asked. “I didn’t think you’d remember me,” she said.

                “Mind if I interrupt?” Becky interrupted and she measured the bite mark on Elica. “Dust that is one big bite,” she said. “We’re just lucky that Deuce had snuck out of my bag and caught that snake or else we would never have found the needed anti-venom,” Doyle said. Deuce had been curled up on Doyle’s head but popped up at the sound of his name. He jumped down into Elica’s lap and she petted the animal, “Good boy Deuce, getting that snake.”

                “Speaking of snakes,” Becky said looking at her scroll tablet. “It wasn’t any ordinary snake. It doesn’t match any known species on record. I ran some test on its DNA to discover it’s a hybrid of a Vacuo sand cobra and a Mistral pit viper, add in a DNA of a few more species and some genetic modification and you got that monstrosity,” she said. “What about the thieves?” Doyle asked. “Well once I managed to thaw one out I took blood samples and ran tests. None of them remember what happened. The tests all came back with a modified snake venom with various additives that are known to have hypnotic effects. In addition I also found a bite on all of them albeit much smaller than Elica’s,” Becky explained. “So what someone is running around injecting people with venom and then hiding it with fake snake bites?” Weiss asked. “No I found a fang broken off in one of the victims, plus we’ve counted nearly a hundred people affected. From my calculations the by the time a single person to injected all those people in time for them to rob all those places at once before the venom ran its course and lost its effect. More likely someone created a breed of snake capable of creating this formula. They then mass produced them and let them loose. By the size of the bite mark on the victims I’d say the snakes would have to be about a foot long,” Becky said. “Why did no one ever find this in any of the other robbers in the other towns?” Hazel asked. “Well I took these samples why they were still in their zombie state. In the others the venom had metabolized and left their systems,” Becky said.

                “Well who would have the knowledge to genetically engineer a ‘hypno snake’ in a circus?” Matt asked. “Well the people at the circus aren’t exactly rocket scientist, let alone genetic engineers,” Reviol said. Deuce perked up, jumped off the bed, and ran towards the closed. The ferret activated his semblance and his body flatted out becoming paper thin and slipped through the crack under the door. “Where’s the rat going?” Blake asked. “Ferret,” everyone corrected. “I think I left my satchel in there, that bag is basically his home,” Doyle said. The ferret scurried back into the room carrying something in his mouth. He jumped up onto the bed and set down what looked like a gold coin attached to a scrap of green cloth. “What’s that?” Ruby asked. “It’s just something shiny he probably picked up one day,” Doyle said. “Maybe not, you did manage to graze that cloaked figure. It could have come off of them,” Matt said. “Wait I’ve seen this before,” Weiss said picking up the shred of cloth and coin. “I got it, this looks like part of that snake charmer’s jingling belt.” “The snake charmer, that lady’s creepy,” Elica said hiding her face behind her ears and snuggling into Hazel’s protective hug. Hazel started petting Elica comfortingly. “She’s right that girl is weird. She would spend all her time hanging out with her snakes and no one else. The only person she would ever talk to was Phineas Parchment the circus owner and that was only about business,” Hazel said. “She also never let anyone near her tent. I think her name is Viper Mumba,” Doyle added. “So what do we do?” Yang asked. “We need evidence,” Doyle said. “Let’s search her tent while she’s out performing,” Ruby suggested. They all nodded in agreement.

                The snug into the back of the fairground and into the village of tents the performers lived in. However it was empty as the performers were all in the main tent. They snuck up to the Snake Charmer’s tent. “Alright here we are,” Doyle said and then they heard a rustling sound. Team DERR pushed Matt and team RWBY into a couple of crates as Doyle said, “We got this, watch Deuce,” and he tossed Ruby the ferret. “Agh, there you guys are,” a man said as he turned the corner to see the four of them. “Mr. Parchment!” Doyle said acknowledging the man with a tone that slightly said he was hiding something. He was an older man with grey hair and a handlebar mustache. He wore a red dress shirt under a white vest with gold detail and a yellow flower on it, kaki pants, black shoes, and a black bowler hat with a red band and yellow flower on the side. “Where have you four been, the show is about to start. We haven’t seen you since yesterday?” the circus owner asked. “Oh you know we just wanted to see Vale,” Doyle said. “Well forget about it lets just get to the big top,” the old man said as he herded them towards the big tent.

                When they were gone Matt and the girls climbed out of the crates. They snuck inside Viper’s tent. It was pretty simple inside just a cot, a mirror, a few trunks, some sort of matt on the ground so the occupant wouldn’t have to walk on the dirt, and a tank that they guessed was for the snakes. “Pop quiz girls, what is the most important thing about covertly searching a place?” he asked the girls. “Be fast,” Weiss guessed. “Make sure you find something,” Yang tried. “If you don’t find anything, plant evidence,” Ruby joked. “No, its leave no obvious trace. Make sure you put everything back,” Matt said. They searched around but didn’t find anything. “I don’t get it, there has to be something here,” Matt said as he started to pace. Then he heard a hollow sound when he took a step. Blake heard it with her cat like hearing to making her cat ears twitch under her bow, “What was that?” Matt looked to his feet and stomped his foot a few times, making the same hollow sound. “That’s it, help me roll this up,” he said gesturing to the floor mat. They rolled back the floor mat to find a shiny metal chest fitted perfectly into a hole its exact dimensions. They pulled out the chest to find a complex digital lock on it. “How do we open it?” Yang asked. Matt thought for a second and then snapped as he got an idea. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Deuce who had been hiding in it. “Deuce open the box,” he told the furry creature. Deuce jumped down to the ground and towards the seam of the opening of the chest activating his semblance and slipped inside it. They heard a few clicks and the chest opened. Deuce jumped onto Matt’s shoulder as the chest unfolded. The chest contained a screen and keyboard, powerful microscope, genetic sequencer, and set of small tanks with snakes suspended in a fluid in them. “What is this?” Ruby asked. “I do believe this is what’s called evidence,” Matt said.

                Suddenly the tent opened and Viper Mamba was about to step in when she saw Matt and the girls. “Get her,” Matt said as she ran. They chased her towards the main tent and into the staging area. Ruby dashed ahead of her in a cloud of petals and Matt bolted in front to cut her off and Yang tackled her to the ground. “What’s going on?” Doyle asked as he and Hazel were preparing for their acts. “We found a portable lab in her tent full of snake DNA, it’s her,” Matt said. Viper started to laugh a little. “You think this is over?’ she asked. “What does that mean?” Ruby asked. “Allow me to explain. My semblance allows me to communicate and control any snakes, _any snake_ ,” she said emphasizing “any snake”. It took Matt a minute to realize what she meant when the ground shook a little. “Oh no,” Matt said. Suddenly several king Tiajitsus of various sizes erupted from the ground. “Grimm!” Matt yelled.

                All the performers scattered as Matt and the members of teams DERR and RWBY grabbed their weapons. A snake jumped out towards Yang who was sitting on Viper and she jumped of her to dodge the snake’s bite. Viper moved fast and jumped onto the head of one of the snake Grimm on its way out into the main show area. “Hurry we got to stop her!” Ruby called to the others. They started running out after Viper when Reviol, Doyle, and Hazel felt someone pull them back. They turned to see old man Parchment who demanded to know, “What’s going on? Where are you going?” They looked at each other and pulled out their weapons. “Our jobs,” the said and they ran out.

                Elica was up on the high wire when Viper came charging out on her King Tiajitsus. “What the?’ she muttered to herself. The crowd and the actors started to scream and scatter at the sight of the Grimm. She started to hear gun fire and slashes and saw the others running out of the backstage area attacking Grimm. Reviol slammed his hammer down on the head of one of the Grimm snakes crushing it. Doyle fired off a barrage of explosive dust cards and Hazel grew to her max size along with her weapon and chopped up a few tiajitsus. Team RWBY split up and started slashing and blasting through them. She watched in horror as people ran screaming when she heard someone scream, “My daughter!” She looked to see a tiny girl cornered against one of the support posts by a King Tiajitsu and crying. She flashed back to the day Matt save her for a second and acted on instinct. She dove off the high wire and into a hole she made with her semblance. She flew out of another hole forming in front of the girl and she slashed the Grimm. Before the other Grimm could react she grabbed the girl and dove into a hole with her. They came out of another hole near the exit where the woman who yelled for her daughter earlier. She set the girl down and knelt down to her saying to her, “alright sweetie be a good girl and go with you mommy and get out of here. Everything’s going to be alright.” The girl looked up and stopped crying. She hugged Elica saying, “Thank you,” before her mother picked her up and ran for it.

                Elica turned back and ran into the battle firing her submachineguns at the King Tiajitsus. She bounce up onto the back of one of the Grimm snakes sliding down its back firing into it. When she reached the head she converted her guns to their dagger form and stabbed them both into the head. She eyed a seesaw launcher from the show and knew her next move. “Reviol,” she yelled to her brother who was next to the seesaw as she jumped onto the opposite end. Reviol got the idea. After he smashed another Grimm he pulled the trigger that fired the cannon and it flew over him like a lever slamming into the end of the seesaw launching Elica into the air. She slashed the heads off two more King Tiajitsus and landed in giant Hazel’s open hand. Hazel threw her and she put both her blades forward as she spun and she practically drilled through another one. She flew out the other side into another rabbit hole she formed in the wall and flew out next to Doyle. He fired a barrage of lightning dust cards that stunned them as she cut them up.

                Then she saw Viper on one of the high platforms laughing at the mayhem. She grabbed onto a rope tied to another support and slashed it letting the weight of the sand bags it was holding pull her up to another platform. “Why are you doing this?!” she yelled at Viper. “Because I can!” Viper yelled back as she drew a pair of khopesh swords and converted them to pistols and opened fire on Elica. She ducked under the shots and fired back. She jumped off the platform and grabbing onto a stray rope and swung to another platform as she fired. Viper jumped off her platform converting one of her guns back to its khopesh sword form and hooked it onto a trapeze swinging onto another platform. They landed on platforms on the opposite ends of a support beam at the highest point of the tent. They charged each other and began fighting.

                Back on the ground the others were starting to push back the Grimm. Reviol smashed several more Grimm laughing as he converted his mallet to its cannon form and blasted another pair of snake Grimm and Yang punched them as the fell back to the ground finishing them off. “Well this is going better than I expected,” Doyle said as he and Hazel came up back to back with each other. Matt slashed the head off another King Tiajitsu with his scythe saying, “You had to say it,” and he pointed up. The three members of team DERR looked up to see Elica in an intense fight with Viper. The two were locked in battle, neither of them gaining any ground on the other. Doyle raised his gun Joker to fire but Matt pushed it down. “You can’t take that shot; you have no idea how they’re going to move. You’ll just end up hitting Elica,” he said as he shot another King Tiajitsu with a burst of fire from Storm Reaper’s rifle mode. “Then what do we do?!” Doyle demanded to know. “We trust her skill as a huntress,” Matt said as he looked up at the fight. “And pray those two rabbit’s feet she’s got are as lucky as they’re supposed to be,” he added before they split up.

                Elica and Viper were slashing and blocking at intense speeds when Viper hooked her khopesh’s end on the base of one of her blades and tore it from her hand sending it stabbing into the ground. Elica switched her remaining blade to a back handed grip and continued fighting. Viper commanded the snakes coiled around with a hiss and it lunged off of her keeping their tails coiled around her as an anchor. Elica back flipped to dodge the first, followed by a contortionist’s back bend to dodge the next, bent to each side to dodge the next two, finally blocking the last snake’s bite with her remaining blade. Elica struck at Viper but Viper blocked it with one of her khopeshs shattering the blade and struck her with the other. Elica staggered back on the beam but managed to keep herself on it. She hit the glass dust switch on her remaining dagger and the blade grew back. She moved to strike but Viper dropped off the side of the beam hooking her sword onto it. She swung under the beam and up behind Elica and struck her in the back. Elica’s aura broke as she dropped her other dagger, stabbing into the ground right next to the other, and she passed out. With that she fell off the beam falling to the ground.

                “Elica!” Reviol yelled in horror as his sister fell with no aura to protect her from the impact. As she fell time seemed to slow down to Elica. (The following is a metaphorical representation of the interaction between Elica’s two personalities) Inside Elica’s mind was an empty white space occupied by two femininely shaped beings of energy with rabbit ears one blue and one red, but the blue one glowed far dimmer than the red. “So you got beaten huh?” the red being asked in a voice different from Elica’s. “Yeah I got the ears beaten off of me,” said the blue being as she cuddled up close as Red held her. “Why don’t you let me take a crack at her?” Red suggested. “You think you can take her? I mean we could always let Matt do it, no one can beat him,” Blue said. Red chuckled bit, “You can’t expect the others to bail us out all the time. We got to stand on our own two feet,” said Red. “And by we you mean me. You’ve always stood on your own two feet,” Blue retorted. Red just laughed a little as she petted Blue’s head. “It’s time to trade places sweetie, you just take a little nap while I take care of that snake,” Red said as she let go and began to float away. “Kick her tail!” Blue called to her as she curled up to rest.

                Back in the real world, a fraction of a second had pasted. As she fell Elica’s body began to glow a bright red clothes and all. “What’s happening to her?!” Ruby called out. Matt slashed another snake grimm in half and said, “Make way for the queen!” Elica’s body began to change. She grew six inches her hair and eye color changed, as well as her clothes. She flipped around landing on her feet knocking up a cloud of dust. When the dust cleared she was a completely different person standing there. She had red hair in a short pony tail and a black hairband with a small gold crown attached to it off center. She wore a black and gold striped shirt under a cropped red half jacket with sleeves ending just past the elbow with black cuffs and gold buttons, black shorts, a red and black back half skirt, red knee socks, and red sneakers. She pulled the two glass blades out of the ground and smashed the blade against each other shattering them. She locked the bladeless hilts together into a larger hilt as she pressed the glass dust release and a large heart shaped sword blade grew out of it.

                “What happened to Elica?” Weiss asked. Hazel had just finished ripping a King Tiajitsu in half in her giant form and shrunk back to normal size saying, “She’s not Elica anymore, now she’s Regina Heart.” Regina converted her sword to a TAR 21 style rifle and began firing at Viper. Viper converted her swords to their pistol form and began firing back down at her as she ran along the support beams and Regina followed her along the ground firing back. A glyph formed and a group of floating diamond shaped shields of energy materialized in front of her blocking most of Viper’s shots. She then drew another of the same glyph and a series of diamond shields in an upward path that she ran up like stepping stones reaching the support beams. She converted the rifle back to its sword mode and charged slashing at Viper yelling, “You hurt Elica, off with her head!” Viper blocked it against both swords but she was knocked back a bit by the force of the large blade. Viper jumped onto another beam converting her swords to guns and fired on Regina. Regina drew another glyph and more diamond shields formed to block the shots. Regina jumped onto another beam and drew another glyph this time with a spade design. The glyph erupted with razor sharp spades at Viper. Viper deflected most of the spades with her swords but a few made it through hitting her. Viper slipped off the beam but she hooked one of her swords onto the beam swinging under it and back on. She jumped up hooking her swords onto a trapeze and swung towards Regina. She unhooked from the trapeze and fired for acceleration as she spun with her swords held out. Regina jumped back onto another beam as she drew another spade glyph firing at Viper. Viper jumped up onto a higher beam and then pounced on Regina from above. Regina drew a heart designed glyph and she dashed out of the way with speed equal to Ruby’s semblance. She converted her sword to its rifle form and dashed about the supports firing at Viper from different angles. She dashed up to Viper as she slashed. Viper was taking off guard and was hit directly staggering back. Regina drew another glyph with a club design this time that increases her attack power and her sword glowed as it surged with power. She spun around striking so hard she knocked the swords from Viper’s hands. She then used both the club and heart glyphs at once. She dashed about slashing at Viper pulverizing her. Viper’s aura broke and she fell off the beam. As she fell Matt bolted up grabbing her and brought her to the ground where he pinned her down. “And her head came off,” Matt said as he gave Viper a powerful enough shock to knock the criminal and her snakes unconscious and looked up to Regina in the support beams who stood there looking down at her fallen foe proud of her victory.

                By now the others had finished off the remaining King Tiajistus. The police had arrived and carted off Viper. Regina jumped down a set of diamond shields and joined the others. “Well this is a treat. Elica doesn’t exactly let you out that often,” Reviol said to Regina. “Reviol the only reason you don’t see me that often is because I want to stay in here,” she said as she knocked on her head. “If I want out, I can always get out if I want to you Hat Whack,” she said. “Mom said to stop calling me that,” Reviol chided.  “This is so creepy, she’s an entirely different person,” Ruby said as she looked at Regina in awe. “So you’re a different person but still Elica?” Weiss asked in confusion. “Well physically we are the same person but we are two different personalities with separate auras. But only one of us can control the body at once so we switch when needed,” Regina said. Suddenly she looked to the side as if someone was talking to her and then she said, “Oh just a minute sweetie, I don’t get out that much.” “Ah, Regina who are you talking to?” Yang asked in confusion. “Oh sorry, Elica and can communicate no matter who’s controlling the body. Normally we just talk in our head, but sometime whoever’s in charge of the body forgets to keep in in our head and we talk out loud,” Regina explained.

                Suddenly Matt was tackled by a blue and brown furry object. Ringo had appeared out of nowhere and tackle hugged him. “Oh dust Matt what happened?! Are you alright?!” she asked in a slightly panicked tone. Matt struggled in her iron grip and asked sarcastically, “Why is it you never do this when we’re fighting together?” before bolting out of her grip. “Well as usual, you’ve made a mess,” Lulu said as she and Narco joined them. “I seem to recall whenever we got destructive you guys destroyed just as much stuff as me, plus I didn’t cause all this, those King Tiajitsus did,” Matt said in his defense. Then Ringo, Lulu, and Narco notice the members of team DERR. “Hey guys long time no see,” Ringo said as she hugged Hazel and Doyle nearly choking them.

                “Agh!” they hear the scream of an elderly man and turned to see Mr. Parchment with a horrified look on his face. They then realized just how much damage the King Tiajitsus had done. “My show is ruined!” he cried. “Sorry for the mess Mr. Parchment,” Regina said. “Who are you?” he asked in confusion. It took her a second before she forgot he had only met Elica. “Oh right,” she said as she snapped and changed back to Elica. Parchment didn’t question that Regina had just turned into Elica and just dropped to his knees crying on her shoulder. “Oh Mr. Parchment,” she said as she hugged the old man. “Man that guy is eccentric,” Matt said. “The tent is trashed, half my performers are injured, and we still have that one big show next week we need to break even. Without that show we’re ruined,” he cried. Elica couldn’t help but feel sorry for him and looked to Matt asking, “Professor is there anything we can do for them?” Parchment stopped crying and stood up looking at Matt.

                Matt combed his fingers through his hair exhaling as he paced. “Who is that guy anyway? More importantly who are you guys? You took out an army of Grimm yourselves,” Mr. Parchment asked Elica. “We’re huntsmen and huntresses; we’re trained to fight Grimm. That is professor Vert one of our best teachers. He has an amazing ability to pull a miracle out of nowhere,” Elica said. “I don’t think anyone could save us from this,” Mr. Parchment said. “Hey MRLN never says die!” Matt said in his defense pointing at the old man. “You’re talking to the guy that that organized the down fall of the Xiong crime family in a night, planned a campus wide food fight at Beacon, and got away with throwing the biggest party in the history of Beacon, and in the headmaster’s office no less!” Matt said.

                He combed his fingers through his hair again. “Alright, I’m going to need a list of every act you have props and equipment for,” he said pointing to old man Parchment. “Ringo I need a list of every huntsman and huntress within a day’s journey from Vale,” he said pointing to Ringo. “Girl’s round up every student at Beacon you can convince, trick, blackmail, or threaten into helping us and don’t be afraid to threaten Cardin and his goons, we’re going to need clowns,” he said to the members of team RWBY. “Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung,” Mr. Parchment said. “Right, alright I’m also going to need three pots of coffee, a black and green top hat, and I need to talk to Ozpin,” Matt said. “Oh boy, he’s got a cause,” Ringo groaner. “What do you mean by that?” Blake asked. “Whenever Matt has a cause to get behind, he’ll move heaven and earth to make it happen and he pulls out all the stops,” Ringo said. “Come on people, move, move, move!” Matt said motivating them.

                The next day Ruby and the girls found Matt in his office working his scythe off. Reviol, Ringo, and Mr. Parchment were also scurrying about helping him. “Ringo wasn’t kidding, he is pulling out all the stops,” Ruby said. Matt looked up from his desk and said, “Ah good you’re here. Everyone drop what you’re doing so we can compare notes.” He turned to Ruby and the girls, “Ruby how many students have we got?” “Well besides us we talked teams JNPR, CFVY, and SNNN into it,” Ruby said. “And we told Cardin and his goons you’d flunk them if they didn’t help,” Yang added. “Good, Ringo who do we have in range?” he asked his partner. “Well team RAZR is always in town, Becky’s here on campus, Scotch and Lonan are just outside of town on a quick search and destroy mission, Misty’s tour is over so she’s spending her off time here in Vale, team STKR is on an escort mission protecting a convoy that will reach Vale this afternoon, team MMNT is following up on a Kraken sighting a few miles out of Vale but I doubt it will pan out, team ROOC is still in town they decided to have the entire Red Fortune overhauled while they were in for repairs, Starr is on break after her tour along with Lucian,” Ringo said. “Why are those two together?” Ruby asked. “They’re a couple, you never noticed?’ Matt said. “Anyway Al has been in town getting reacquainted with her parents, Den is still working fighting crime in the Grimm’s Cage, Sterling has been in Magnum Opus with Clancy and Indigo doing various missions. I called all of them and told them all to meet us at the circus this evening,” Ringo finished. “Parchment do you have that list of supplies for me?” Matt asked the elderly circus owner. “Ah yes I have it professor, but all my animal handlers are injured and can’t perform and the animals are half the show,” Parchment said. “Don’t worry; we got this one huntsman Talon that can communicate with animals so he can talk them into cooperating,” Matt said.

                That evening they had a small army of students, huntsmen, and huntresses. “Alright Matt what the dust are we doing here? We got Grimm to blow up,” Stoker said. “Colleagues, students, Weiss,” Matt said. “Hey!” Weiss complained. “Have a sense of humor Ice queen,” he mumbled before returning to his speech. “We are about to pull off the biggest shenanigan in history,” Matt said. “Bro just spit it out already. I heard there’s a few bounties in town I want to grab,” Sterling said. “We’re putting on a circus and we got a week to do it,” Matt said. Everyone scoffed. “Come on guys they need help to do their last show and most of the performers were injured in a Grimm attack yesterday,” Matt said. It took Matt a while and he had to threaten a few of them but he got everyone onboard.

                After a long night of deliberation and debate everyone figured out what kind of job they could take care of. Matt spent the next day with Phineas Parchment, Reviol, and Ruby working on redesigning the posters for the new show and working up a new promotional gimmick, the Mystery of Beacon. Luckily Matt was able to talk Ozpin into letting him do this and got Goodwitch to fix the damage with her telekinesis so the students both current and former could practice their new acts.

                “So Mr. Parchment, how are they doing?” Matt asked. “If you insist on not being call professor then I’ll insist on not being called mister. Call me Phineas,” Parchment said. “Alright Phineas, in your professional opinion how are they doing?” Matt asked again. “Well they’re making progress,” he said.

                As they walked through the circus performer village they observed everyone practicing. First up they came upon Razor and Ash doing tricks on trampolines. They bounced around doing flips off of various trampolines set up at various angles at one point they even bounced directly at each other flipping so they were going feet first at each other. Their feet hit each other and the pushed off flipping back onto opposite trampolines. “Well those two are definitely doing well, they’re in perfect sync,” Phineas said. “Well they did spend years as partners,” Matt said.

Lonan was working on juggling while Scotch was working on refining his rope tricks with a lasso and horseback tricks. Lonan was juggling sharp knives in various ways, one handed, behind his back even with his eyes closed. Of course his semblance was active the whole time. Scotch was riding Whiskey standing on the saddle like he was a skateboard while he was expanding a lasso’s loop. He when the loop had expanded enough he started jumping through it over and over while still on the back of the moving horse. He then threw away the lasso and drew his pistols and shooting Lonan’s knives out of the air and into a board in the shape of a star. “You know I’ve never had a cowboy act in my circus so this will defiantly be an interesting act,” Phineas said.

                They moved on to find Mary Soot working on plate spinning. She spun a plate on the end of her umbrella and slowly transferred it to another pole. She pressed a switch on the ground a machine launched out another plate like a Frisbee. She caught it perfectly on her umbrella doing a pirouette as she passed it onto another pole and spun the previous one to keep it going. “Mary is doing quite well. I’m surprised how fast she picked it up. It took me almost a week just to balance one plate,” Reviol said. “Well she has an unfair advantage,” Matt said. “What do you mean?” “She has a thin layer of smoke under each plate to keep them balanced for her,” Matt said.

                They continued their review of the acts. As they walked down the path they heard a crash. They turned to see Mojave on a pair of stilts trying to keep his balance but kept walking into things. “Hey Mojave, remember you can’t rebalance yourself just by shifting your weight around. You need to keep your feet moving in the direction you began to fall and don’t stop moving your feet even if it’s just by a few inches,” Reviol called up to him as they continued on.

                Next they came to the animal enclosures where Talon, Ringo, Iola, and Cheshire were working with the animals. Ringo was working with Matt’s dogs on doing tricks. Dax was juggling balls by bouncing them off his head and tail as well as using his semblance to play catch with himself. Sarge was jumping through hoops, riding a scooter, and jumping rope. Frostbite’s act was a very unique one, he would freeze the ground and skate on it. Cheshire and Iola were working with the elephants. They were already well trained animals and very obedient so they weren’t having much trouble getting them to do tricks and let them ride them. As for Talon he had the most difficult job as the lion tamer. However he was not like a normal lion tamer. He was in the practice cage with one of the lions knelt down in front of one of the beasts looking directly into its eyes, it was if they were talking to each other without words. He then broke eye contact and stood up scratching the animal behind the ears and beast purred like a house cat. “How’s it coming guys?” Matt asked. “Well the dogs are doing well but I think I have your training to thank for that,” Ringo said. “The elephants are so nice,” Iola said as the elephant she was sitting on raised its trunk up and nuzzled it to her face. “Oh hey you silly boy,” she said as she petted the trunk. “Yeah but I think we are going to need more peanuts,” Cheshire said as her elephant lowered her to the ground on its trunk. “The main supply it in two tents that way,” Phineas said as he pointed down one of the paths. “Talon how are the lions?” Reviol asked. “I have gained their respect and they have agreed to perform. However, they will require twenty five pounds of steak,” Talon said. “Twenty five pounds?!” Matt questioned. “Each,” Talon added. “Leo and Harley want theirs medium, Luna wants her’s rare, and Loki and Luka want theirs well down.” Matt rubbed the bridge of his nose under his glasses groaning, “Alright I’ll get Narco on it later.” Talon turned to the lions using his semblance to communicate the deal. They all made happy lion sounds celebrating the coming treat.

                Next was Radcliffe and Zorro’s act. They had set up a small set of a pair of ship masts and the two of them were having a mock sword fight. They were jumping from mast to mast, swinging from ropes, and fighting. “Looking good boys,” Matt called up to them. “Look out!” they heard Oralie call from behind them as she clumsily road past on a unicycle and crashed into a crate. “keep at it Oralie, you’re getting closer,” Reviol said. 

                They moved into the main tent where, Clancy, Indigo, Lucian, and Becky were setting up pyro technics and special effects. They had made various fireworks, smoke bombs, and fire effects for the show and were strategically placing them about the tent. “How are the effects coming?” Reviol asked them. “Its slow going, we could use some help getting all these things set up,” Clancy said. “Get Sterling, Den, and Al to help you,” Matt said. On the other end of the tent Starr and Misty were working on music. Most of the original show’s musicians had escaped injury during Viper’s attack but the conductor was out of commission so Star had to step in. She and Misty were busy trying to throw together a new musical line up for the show. “How’s the music coming girls?” Phineas asked. “It’s coming along. We should be done by tomorrow afternoon,” Starr said. “But would you talk to Ruby about this big mystery act of hers. We can’t pick music if we have no idea what kind of act it is,” Misty said as she tuned her guitar. “Where is she?” Matt asked. “I don’t know. She’s been scurrying around the circus looking for stuff,” Misty said. “I’ll see what I can do,” Matt said as they moved on.

                They looked up to see Stoker leaping off a high platform and spreading his wings and pulling up just as he was about to hit the ground. He did a spiral and a few loops before launching a cable to from his gauntlet behind him and flying back the other way. He then did a few more stunts before landing in front of Matt, Phineas, and Reviol. “Not bad bats but you’ll need to expand your act a bit. Your performance needs to be at least ten minutes long,” Reviol said. “Right I got it,” Stoker said before he used his grappling hook to get back up to the platform.

                Back outside they found Kirk and Pike working on a fire and water act. Using there semblances to control fire and water to create a pair of huge creatures fighting, a water shard and a wolf of fire. They then switched as the fire and water turned into two humanoid shapes that began to fight all the while steam would erupt from where they would hit each other. “Keep up the good work gentlemen,” Parchment called to them.

                They continued on and passed Rune on the way, who was pushing a cart of lighting equipment. As a technologies expert he was the perfect choice for fixing the lighting that was damaged. “Hey Rune how are the repairs on the lighting going?” Matt asked. He unzipped his collar and said in his mechanical voice, “It’s going, but it’s difficult getting all the new lights up into the riggings by myself.” “Alright, I’ll get Goodwitch back here to help you get the equipment into the riggings but you’ll still have to wire the stuff yourself,” Matt said. “Thank you,” Rune said as he zipped his collar back up and continued with his cart.

                From there they reached the aerial practice area where acrobats practiced aerial stunt acts like the trapeze. Blake, Ren, and Velvet had come together to put on a trapeze act. Velvet moved surprisingly well on the trapeze considering it was her first time and Ren and Blake were doing quite well too. Blake had even developed a trick where she would purposefully miss the trapeze and use her semblance to move closer and catch the bar leaving a shadow clone behind. “Nice work guys,” Matt called up to them. “Remember be creative as you want but don’t push yourselves and try to do a trick you don’t think you’re capable off,” Reviol added. “Got it,” they all called down.

                They moved onto Pyrrha who was practicing an aerial silks routine. She was practicing the basics at the moment just mainly how to climb up the long pieces of cloth but was having some difficulty getting traction. Luckily Elica was helping her. “Look Pyrrha, you need to wrap it around your foot and then use the other to hold and tighten the cloth so the foot doesn’t move don’t when you put weight on it,” Elisa explained and demonstrated before letting Pyrrha try again. “How’s she doing sis?” Reeviol asked. Elisa was startled and her semblance actives creating a small hole that she dove into. However, this hole was just a hole to hide in and not a portal. After a second she peaked out to realize it was just her brother. “Don’t do that Reviol,” she said. “It’s hard not to, you just startle to easy. Anyway, how is Pyrrha doing?” “Well she’s getting there. She definitely got the agility and grace, she just needs to learn how to use it with the silks,” she said. “Well keep at it, but don’t be afraid to push a tad just not too much,” Reviol said.

                From there they moved into the area Phineas called clown town. This was where the clowns usually lived but today it was the practice ground for their six new clowns Sun, Neptune, and team CRDL. However, they were not making too much progress. Sun and Neptune were arguing about the act while Cardin and his goons were whacking each other with rubber trick mallets. “I’m telling you Neptune we need more banana peel gags,” Sun said as he started eating a banana. “Sun we already have three of them. We need more than just slipping on banana peels,” Neptune argued. “But then what am I going to do with all these peels?” Sun asked as he through another peel onto the large pile of peels next to him from bananas he had a ready eaten. “I take it this isn’t going well?” Matt asked. “Sun just wants ten minutes of slipping on banana peels and we can’t get the blockhead and his bricks to help,” Neptune said gesturing to Cardin and his goons. “Alright, Phineas and I will come by later after we finish our rounds and help you with it,” Reviol said. They turned to leave when Reviol slipped on a banana peel. “And clean up these banana peels,” he added.

                They left the clowns and heard Coco and Nora. They had become the barkers who were meant to entice people into the tent. “Come one come all. See the greatest show in Remnant, one night only!” they yelled as they twirled canes and pointed them at show posters. “Looking good ladies,” Matt told them as they passed by.

                Next they checked on Narco and Zaffre were working on a motorcycle trick act. Narco was in the middle of riding his bike in a forward wheelie while sitting on the handle bars. Suddenly Zaffre flew off a ramp and did a full 360 degree spin before landing on another ramp. He then spun back passing tem as he did a handstand on the bike. “I don’t even think we need to check on these guys,” Phineas said as they moved on. Then they heard a small explosion and Jaune went flying through the air in and arcing path before coming down behind some tents. “You absolutely sure it was a good idea to make that kid the human cannon ball?” Reviol asked rhetorically.

 

                As they continued they came across Rouge sitting on a crate sketching in a sketch book. “How are the costume designs coming?” Matt asked her. “I’m working as fast as I can, but a lot of them are repulsed by the idea of spandex,” she said. “Well you don’t necessarily have to use spandex,” Phineas said as he looked over her shoulder at her current sketch. “Remember acrobat outfits don’t have to be skin tight, they just can’t be too baggy to cause drag or too restrictive as to prevent agility. As for clowns go big and baggy; oversized bow ties, big shoes, and wild hair. Plus the face paint needs to be greatly exaggerated so people can see the expressions from a distance,” Recoil said. “Also remember the tone of the act. Acts with a darker tone need to be less flashy while others need plenty of reflective surfaces to catch your eye,” Phineas added. “Alright but I need you to find out what kind of acted Ruby is doing. She won’t tell anyone,” Rouge said. Matt rolled his eyes saying, “I’ll talk to her, for now work on a ringmaster costume for her. We’re going to go with a triple ringmaster bit.” “You got it,” Rouge said as she started a new sketch.

                The last two students they had to check were Weiss and Yang. Yang and Hazel had decided to do an act together. The where working on their finale at the moment. Hazel would throw whole logs at Yana and she would split them midair with her fists. As for Weiss, Doyle had manipulated her into being his partner he throws knives at. Doyle had stood her in front of a target board as he was about to practice but she was shaking like a leaf. “Calm down rich girl, these are just practice knives. They aren’t even sharp. The board behind you is made of Styrofoam so they’ll stick in. Besides you always have your aura,” he said. “Would a blindfold help?” he joked as he threw a practice knife near her head making Weiss flinch. “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?” Reviol asked jokingly. “Can you blame me? She grew up in the lap of luxury and I grew up on the streets,” he said as he threw another knife around Weiss. “Doyle give her a break. Just because she has money doesn’t mean she hasn’t had a rough life,” Matt said. “Matt I don’t think I can do this,” Weiss shuttered. “Oh relax kid, it’s impossible for me to miss. My semblance lets me alter trajectories midflight. I could aim right between your eyes, throw the knife, and cut off your ponytail. Actually now that I think about it, that would be a good trick for the act,” Doyle said. “Don’t you dare!” she yelled at him as she grabbed her ponytail.

                As they were talking they heard a jangling in a tent followed by Ruby scurrying out with a pile of various props in hand ranging from juggling clubs and clown hammers to acrobatics and rigging equipment. She was about to scurry into another tent when Matt grabbed her by the hood holding her up off her feet. “Ah hey,” she said. “Ruby what are you planning? We need to know what kind of act you’re planning,” Matt asked her. Ruby started whispering into Matt’s ear. “Ruby that’s ridiculous, what if you…” Matt began to say as he finished his sentence whispering in her ear. “Well what about…”Ruby said before whispering the rest. “Oh then what about…” “Alright so we’re agreed then,” Ruby said and Matt put her down and she scurried off. “Wait so what was that all about?” Phineas asked. “Let’s just say I talked her out of something stupid and I think I just talked her into coming up with commentary for the triple ringmaster bit,” Matt said. “Alright let’s get back to work.”

                Matt, his friends, and the students spent the next week practicing their acts and preparing for the show. Elsewhere in Remnant, on an island off the coast of Vale stands the island prison known as the Iron Rock which housed the worst of Vale’s criminal element. Viper Mamba sat in a dark cold cell, separated from her beloved snakes awaiting her trial. She shivered in her cell when she heard rocks shifting outside her bared window. “Well, this is just sad,” Viper heard a young woman say from outside. “A smart snake like that all cage up huh.” “I know right,” a young man outside added. “Maybe we should give her someone to keep her company.” Suddenly one of Vipers five snakes slithered in between the bars and loosely coiled around Viper. Most people would have been scared stiff but for Viper the presence of the serpent was comforting. “Who are you? What do you want?” Viper asked the faceless voices outside. “Our superior would like your services to start, your loyalty can come later,” the female voice said. “I think we can make that work,” Viper said. “Good, step away from the wall,” the male voice said. She started hearing a beeping sound and realized what they were doing. Viper jumped to the other end of the cell and shielded her face as an explosive charge went off making a large hole in the wall. When the dust cleared Mercury and Emerald stood there confidently as Vipers other four snakes slithered out of a bag they had with them and coiled around Viper. “So you’re in?” he asked. “On one condition, I have some previous business to take care of first,” she said as she petted her snakes.

                Back at the circus, after a solid week of practice taking up all their free time it was time for the big show. Everyone had practiced their acts till they could do them in their sleep and Rouge had prepared costumes for all. Most of them were partially based of the person’s usual style with a few tweaks for added flash in the show. Coco and Nora drew in the crowd and the tent began to fill. The lights dimmed and the show began. One by one three spot lights shined down on three pedestals. Standing one each one was Reviol, Ruby, and Matt all in costume.

                Matt wore a black top hat with green band and a green ribbon hanging off the back, silver dress shirt, green tail coat with black interior and silver buttons, green bow tie, black pants, black boots, silver belt, and a silver masquerade mask. Ruby was wearing a small black top hat with red band and a large silver rose on the side, a white blouse, black bow tie, red tail coat with black interior and silver detail, black skirt with red trim, dark stockings, black and red boots, silver carnival mask, and he usual red cloak.

                “Ladies and gentlemen!” Reviol started. “Boys and Girls!” Matt continued. “Children of all ages!” added Ruby. Then simultaneously they said, “Welcome to the mystery!” Small fireworks went off in the base of the pedestals as they began to move and the rest of the lights went on as everyone paraded out and around the rings. The procession came to a stop as the three pedestals came together and Matt, Ruby, and Reviol continued. “I’m Matt,” Matt started. “I’m Reviol,” Reviol added. “And I’m Ruby,” Ruby finished. “And we are your masters…” Matt began when Ruby jumped up a bit and gave him a light smack to the back of the head. “And mistress of ceremonies,” he added. “And we hope you enjoy the show,” Ruby added. “Now for our first act, we have the western rebels of Vacuo Scotch and Lonan!” Reviol said as he gestured to the entrance and the two cowboys came riding in on the back of Whiskey.

                Matt, Reviol, and Ruby quickly ran backstage. “Alright this is going good so far,” Matt said. “Yeah this is kind of fun,” Ruby said. “Don’t get cocky sweetheart,” Phineas said as he got close to her. “Get to confident and you’ll get squirted.” What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked but the water shot out of Phineas’s flower in her face as he chuckled. “Come on we need to introduce the next act,” Reviol said. “Matt wait,” Talon said as he came in. “I need to talk to you.” Just give us a minute,” Matt said.

                Scotch and Lonan came backstage as the three ringleaders ran back out as the audience finished applauding. “Scotch and Lonan everybody,” Reviol said as the crowd calmed down. “Now that was some act. I can’t think of anyone with a wilder life than a cowboy from Vacuo,” Matt said. “Well Matt I think I can think of a few,” Ruby said as a fire truck siren went off. “Send in the clowns!” the three ringleaders called out as a tiny clown fire truck rolled into the ring carrying Sun, Neptune, Cardin, and his goons dressed as clown firemen and a mini set of a burning house floated in and assembled itself with Glynda’s semblance.

                The three ringleaders ran back stage and Matt returned to talk to Talon. “Alright Talon, what’s got your bow bent? Are the lions holding out for more steaks?” Matt asked half joking. “I am hearing something through my semblance, something sinister, something reptilian,” Talon said. Matt got serious, Talon never joked about what he heard from animals so he knew he was serious. “The thing is the voices sound muffled, as if another voice is overshadowing them and manipulating them,” Talon said. “What exactly are you hearing?” Matt asked. “Revenge and images of this circus and Grimm, King Tiajitsus to be specific,” Talon said. “Matt do we have a problem,” Glynda said stepping up behind them. “Not another,” Matt groaned. “General Ironwood and Professor Ozpin just called, Viper Mamba has escaped prison,” she said. “Alright scratch that, we have one problem. Talon is sensing her snakes and she’s coming here,” Matt said. “We need to evacuate,” Glynda said. “We can’t afford to. Between the Mountain Glen breach and the gang war that almost happened people are scared. If we evacuate people will panic and it will attract more Grimm,” Matt said. “Then what do you suggest we do?” she asked. Matt took off his top hat and ran his hand through his hair thinking. “Talon how long do you think we have?” Matt asked the archer. “Half an hour at most,” he answered. “Alright the clowns’ act lasts another few minutes, round everybody up I have a plan,” Matt said.

                After a few more acts Viper was only a few minutes out so they put Matt’s plan into action. “Alright Yang and Hazel should be done in two minutes. Talon ETA on Viper,” Matt said. “Five minutes exactly. From what I could see through the snakes’ eyes she has at least ten King Tiajitsus,” Talon said. Matt set a timer on his watch. “Alright everyone takes you positions,” he said. On that order everyone scattered. Lucian, Lonan, Ringo, Talon, Sterling, Indigo, and Pike took up sniper positions in the riggings of the tent and the others scattered about in various positions. Matt looked to Elica, Ruby, Iola, and Mary, “You guys ready?” he asked. “Matt I’m not sure I can do this, I mean performing tricks is one thing but if this goes wrong people could get hurt,” Elica said as her ears drooped. Matt put a hand on her shoulder as he said, “Hey, hey, hey, don’t think about that.” He noticed she was wearing the charm he gave her. He tapped the charm around her neck as he said, “I gave you this because I knew you had the potential to do great things. As long as you have it I know you can do this.” Elica got a sudden burst of confidence and nodded. Matt stood up as he turned towards the exit into the main tent stretching out and cracking his knuckles. “Alright Ms. Mamba, show time,” he muttered under his breath.

                Doyle and Weiss just finished their act and they came backstage. Doyle actually had to carry her in like a wooden board as she was scared stiff from having all the knives thrown around her. Matt passed them as he ran back out to introduce the next act. “Doyle and Weiss everybody,” he said as the crowd calmed down. “Yeah, you know Weiss has a nickname, Ice Queen, and considering how she’s frozen in fear after that act I think she’s earned it,” he said. The crowd laughed. “Yeah everyone thinks that’s hysterical, or at least everyone but her. But I’m getting away from myself,” Matt said. The lights dimmed around him leaving it so only Matt was visible under a single spotlight. Matt took off his hat holding it to his chest and took a far more humble tone, “And now folks we would like to tell you all a little story. It’s a charming little story about a princess, her best friend the huntress, an evil snake witch, and how the princess overcomes her own weakness,” He said. Matt bowed to the crowd as the spotlight went out above him and the music changed to a calm mystical tone.

                Reviol’s voice can over the loud speakers as he began to narrate, “Long ago there was a young princess.” A spotlight went on shining down on Elica who was playing the princess who was pretending to play with a doll. “She had an easy life in her castle and was cared for by her nanny,” Reviol said as Mary came out as the nanny hugging Elica and giving her something to drink. “Of course like any other girl her age she was a curious little girl.” Mary took the doll and drink and slid into the shadows while Elica popped to her feet and started walking the other way followed by the spotlight. “The young princess would often sneak out of the castle and into the woods that surrounded it to explore.” Elica moved into another ring where fake trees were set up. “In that forest the princess met a huntress.” Ruby walked into the light wearing her usual attire with her hood up. “Together the two would explore the forest and go on fun adventures.” Elica and ruby skipped around pretending to have fun before waving goodbye and Elica returned to the ring that served as the castle.

                Back behind the stage Matt was monitoring everything. “Talon, how long?” Matt asked. “Thirty seconds,” he answered. “Ringo are the roots in place?” Matt asked through his scroll. “Three feet of solid old oak roots with only one opening for them to erupt through, all set. They aren’t braking through all that,” she said as she looked through her scope. “Clancy are the dust shield generators in place?” Matt asked. “Do you know how hard it is to find that many mobile shield generator on such short notice and get them set up?” Clancy asked rhetorically. “Clancy!” Matt said seriously. “just barely, they’re set up to form a shield around the performance ground and separate it for the audience seating. But I can’t be sure how strong it will be,” Clancy said. “Just keep an eye on them. If the Grimm start putting too much stress on the shields detonate some fireworks to force them back,” Matt said. “Rune you there?” Matt asked into the scroll. Rune grunted on the far end. “Alright keep an eye on floor and try to predict how things are going. Focus lighting away from the major threats and on those fighting so they think it’s part of the show. Hopefully they will think the King Tiajitsus are just props and special effects, but if they get too close to the audience they might realize they are real. If that happens shine the lights in the audience’s eyes to blind them,” Matt said. Rune grunted in conformation. “Alright all snipers keep your eyes open. If the Grimm get to close take them out and remember, silencers on we don’t want to scare the crowd with gun fire,” Matt said. “Lonan keep that lucky black eye of your’s open. We’re going to need a lot of luck to pull this off.” “Lucky as a horseshoe, under a rainbow, with a four leaf clover, and an ace of spades,” Lonan said as he unpacked his briefcase into its sniper rifle form and tuned the scope. “Misty you ready?” Misty was sitting up in the rafter concentrating her focus. “Yeah Matt, I’ve got complete control over the sound in the area. No matter what she says the crowd won’t hear it,” she said. “Alright everybody twenty seconds, paly it loose, trust your better judgment and everybody goes home happy,” Matt said.

                Back out in the rings Elica was back pretending to be a spoiled princess. “But one day, everything changed.” The lighting turned to a duller more earie tone. “One day an evil snake witch set her sights on the princess’s pure soul.” The ground began to shake and the crowd began to become uneased. “Don’t worry folks it’s all part of the show. I will warn you though those with weak hearts may want to leave now.” The ground in the middle of the center ring broke and several King tiajitsus erupted from the ground with Viper standing on the head of the one in the middle. “I’m back!” she yelled out but the crowd didn’t hear. “Don’t worry folks it’s all special effects,” Reviol assured the crowd. “When the evil snake witch attacked, the young princess fled her castle and into the woods to find her friend the huntress.” Elica ran into the forest ring where Ruby was and Mary ducked out of sight. “The princess found the huntress and begged her for her help.” Elica dropped to her needs and exaggeratingly pretended to beg. “The huntress took pity on the princess and called her friends to help them.” Ruby turned and pretended to yell and Weiss, Blake, and Yang came into the light joining them. Viper ordered the King tiajitsus to attack the five girls and they all dove out of the way with Ruby pulling Elica along with her as if she was incapable of dodging the attack. The four girls of team RWBY drew their weapons and began to fight the Grimm.

                Elica backed away and pretended to cower behind one of the fake set trees while the girls pushed back the Grimm out of the main light. “The princess coward behind a tree as the huntress and her allies fought the snake queen’s beasts. She had never fought anyone in her life but she greatly wanted to help.” The lighting changed so that only a single spotlight shined done on Elica and glitter began to sprinkle down over her. “Suddenly a magical fairy of the forest appeared to her.” Iola floated down on her wings in front of Elica and knelt down to her. “The fairy took pity on the poor princes and gave her a great gift.” Iola pulled out Elica’s SMG blades and handed them to Elica. “but the gift was not only weapons to fight with but an even greater gift, bravery.” Iola charge a sphere of healing energy from her semblances and held it to Elica’s chest letting it phase into her body. Elica’s body began to glow and she stood up with an air of confidence. Iola flew up and away from Elica as she turned towards the King Tiajitsus.

                The lights over the Grimm went back on as Elica charged in. She jumped on the back of one of the Grimm snakes and ran up its back firing into the creature weakening it and Ruby dropped down and stabbed her scythe into its head. As the grimm disintegrated Elica jumped onto the back of another one running up it as she dodged ice crystals erupted along its back from Wiess freezing it with a glyph. She jumped onto another one as she fired back shattering the frozen Grimm. She continued up along the Grimm getting closer to Viper, reaching the head when Blake threw Gambol Shroud in its boomerang form wrapping her ribbon around the snake’s neck. Elica jumped onto the ribbon and the force caused the ribbon to sever the Grimm’s head like a garrote wire as she bounced up higher onto another King Tiajitsu. She ran along that Grimm’s back with a blade stabbed into it cutting a long opening in it which yang proceeded to punch into making the snake explode. The blast of the snake forced her even higher just above Viper.

                She slashed down on Viper who back flipped out of the way and slid down the back of the King Tiajitsu she was on as she drew her pistols and fired on Elica. She cartwheeled out of the way and off the Grimm stabbing her blades into the Grimm killing it as she spun off the monster and fired back at Viper. As the Grimm began to disintegrating from the head down, Viper continued sliding down the monster just a head of the disintegration and then slung out one of her snakes to latch onto something and swung off the vanishing monster. She swung onto another one as she fired at Elica again. Elica landed on another Grimm and leapt towards Viper firing on her. Viper managed to dodge most of the shots but was hit by a few weakening her aura a bit and making her stumble a bit. Elica landed on the back of the Grimm’s head and slid down its back firing more shots at Viper before converting to her blades and slashing at her. Viper converted her pistols to their sword forms and deflected the blades. They began to fight slashing at each other at high speed as they chased each other across the backs of the King Tiajitsus, halve of them disintegrating under them as team RWBY killed them but more just kept coming out of the hole.

                Some stray shots flew out and hit the shield but Rune flashed the lights in the eyes of the crowd in front of that part of the shield so they couldn’t see the shots hit. Another Grimm was about to get too close to the shield but then Clancy detonated some fireworks and it backed off. “Ok this is going well,” Matt said to himself. “But the Grimm keep coming, I thought Talon said she only had ten,” Mojave said. “He said there were at least ten,” Matt corrected. “But you’re right we need to stop the flow of Grimm,” he said as he started to think before opening his scroll. “Clancy, what’s our dust supply look like?” he asked his half-brother. “twenty five pounds of fire, fifteen pounds of earth, twenty two and a half pounds of water, a hand full of wind, five pounds of lightning, and whatever I got in my jacket,” Clancy answered. “Alright do you have what you need to build a couple directional charges on the fly,” Matt asked. “I got some special effects charges I can modify easy enough why?” “Alright, I need two charges one with all the fire dust we got and one with earth dust,” Matt said. “What’s do you need that for?” “We make and opening and drop the fire bomb in the hole. With that much fire dust they should be incinerated. Then the earth dust charge should seal the hole behind them, but we got to take down Viper first or they’ll try to break through again,” Matt said. “Alright but send someone to take my place watching the fireworks and shield controls,” Clancy said. “Matt look,” Phineas said pointing towards Elica and Viper.

                Viper was beginning to get the upper hand over Elica. Viper was slashing rapidly at Elica as she blocked over and over. Viper managed to shatter the glass blades and Elica back flipped back a ways as she reformed her blades and caught her breath. “Dust it,” Matt cursed under his breath. He tapped the earpiece for his scroll to talk “Guys we’re changing the story a bit,” he said. Elica listened to Matt’s changes to the plan through her earpiece and understood.

                Reviol came over the speakers and narrated the next part of the story Matt had given him, “The princess fought fiercely, but even with the fairy’s gifts she couldn’t defeat the snake witch.” Viper took an X shaped slash at Elica. Elica blocked the attack but jump back making it look like the blow was far more powerful than it is and she flew back out of the light. A spotlight shined down on her, she was on the ground as if she was exhausted. Glitter sprinkled down over Elica again and Iola came down again. “As the princes lay there, exhausted from her battle, the forest fairy returns to her.” “What’s wrong, dear child,” Iola’s voice came over the speakers from an earpiece. Elica was pretending to cry as she spoke into her own earpiece, “I tried to fight but I wasn’t strong enough.” “Dear child of course you are. All you need do is look into your heart and the power will come to you,” Iola said and floated away. Reviol continued to narrate, “The young princess looked into her heart.” Elica held her hands to her chest and focused.

                Inside Elica’s mind the auras of her and Regina were talking. “Ready Regina?” the blue aura of Elica asked the red aura of Regina. “Ready, willing, and able,” she said as she took the blue aura’s hand. Back with Elica her body glowed red. “As the princess searched her souls she found the power she was looking for in her burning desire to protect her friends and kingdom, and began to transform.” Elica transformed into Regina and combined her blades into their sword form. “She had now become a queen.”

                Regina drew a heart glyph increasing her speed and she dashed up the King Tiajitsus with speed akin to Ruby followed by boosting her attack strength with a club glyph and slashed at Viper. Viper flipped out of the way and threw out a snake to swing to another Grimm. Regina jumped off the Grimm she was on. She formed a diamond Glyph and jumped on to it bouncing her high into the air coming down on Viper firing her rifle. She converted her rifle to its sword form and stabbed at Viper. Viper hooked one of her blades onto the descending sword and pulled it off course so it missed her and fired her other sword in its gun form into Regina but she drew a diamond glyph that reflected to shots back into Viper. Viper staggered back a ways and Regina seized the opportunity, using a spade glyph to fire razor sharp spades and throw her further off balance followed by a sequence of slashes with a club glyph attack boost sending the snake charmer flying off the back of the King Tiajitsu and down to the ground.

                “Alright Regina do it,” Matt said in her earpiece. Regina dashed over with a heart glyph and tackled down Viper staring deep into her eyes. Two glyphs with a design containing all four card suits formed over Regina’s eyes. “You will serve your queen,” Regina whispered. Viper struggled under Regina’s grip for a bit before relaxing and becoming complacent with Regina’s commands and her pupils turned into hearts. “I will serve my queen,” Viper muttered. “What’s going on?” Ren asked Matt backstage. “Regina’s fifth type of glyph the royal flush glyph. It allows her to control a person’s will for a limited time, but she has to get real close to do it,” Matt said.

                Reviol continued to narrate, “The evil snake witch saw the error of her ways and agreed to help the princess.” “Order the Grimm away,” Regina told her. Regina turned to the Grimm, waved a hand, and the King Tiajitsus retreated down the hole. Matt quickly bolted out, threw the two dust charges on the hole and bolted away before anyone could notice him. The earth dust charge went of sealing the hole followed by the fire dust charge roasting anything that may have been in the tunnel. “And they all lived happily ever after,” Reviol said.

                The music changed to classic circus music and everyone paraded around the tent one last time saying goodbye to the crowd before ending the show. Regina held her control over Viper, before letting the others restrain her and she turned back to Elica. As soon as she turned back she dropped to her knees in exhaustion. Matt bolted over, catching her before she could fall on her face. “Is she alright?” Ruby asked in concern. “She’ll be fine. Using her mind controlling glyph can take a lot out of both Regina and Elica, especially considering how long she had to hold control over Viper,” Reviol said as he picked up his exhausted little sister. “I can’t believe they audience fell for it,” Weiss said. “Matt, how do you manage to come up with a plan that easily?” Blake asked. “I planned for this very event,” Matt said. “What?!” the four RWBY girls all asked confused. “Girls I plan for every possible contingency. I leave nothing to chance.” “Matt that’s a little farfetched,” Weiss said. Matt took out his scroll tablet, opened a file, and handed it to her. On the tablet was a diagram of how to deal with Viper should she attack in the middle of the show. “Holy dust he really did plan for this,” Weiss said.

                “So Mr. Parchment, what are you going to do now?” Ruby asked. “Well this was the last show of the tour so me and the circus will probably take a few months off, let the injured performers nurse there wounds, and scout some new talent. I have a feeling I’m going to need to replace a ringmaster, acrobat, strong woman, and knife thrower,” Parchment said. “Sorry Phineas but we were just here to investigate,” Doyle said. “Don’t worry Mr. Parchment, I’m sure our parents can recommend a few good performers,” Elica said having recovered and Reviol put her down. “Our parents still run a circus and know all the great talent out there,” Reviol said.

                “So what do we do now?” Yang asked. “We do what circus folk do,” Matt said having moved behind them. Suddenly he, Sun, Neptune, and Phineas pounced, slapping cream pies in the girls’ faces. “We party like clowns!” Phineas said. The room was silent as everyone waited to see how the four girls would react. The girls each stuck their tongues out and licked the pie cream off their own lips. “Is this pies strawberry cream?” Ruby asked. “Mine is,” Yang said. “Mine tastes like blueberries,” Weiss said. “Mine tastes like…” Blake took another lick, “Tuna?” Everyone just laughed. “I had Cheshire modify her secret tuna ice cream formula into whipped cream,” Matt said. “Wait, you planned the pies too didn’t you?” Ruby asked. “Of course,” he said. “Matt!” the four RWBY girls yelled at their teacher in anger as the all tried to tackle him down but he just bolted a few feet out of the way before running into the main tent. Everyone else followed them to see what would happen. The girls chase Matt into the center ring to find several tables full of cream pies. “The girls skidded to a halt. “Matt what’s all this?” Ruby asked. Matt picked up a pie and bounced it in his hand a bit. “Well Phineas said we should party like clowns, and according to my research this is how clowns party!” he said as he threw to pie in Ruby’s face. The girls got the idea.  They all grabbed pies and took aim at Matt. “Well this ought to be entertaining,” Lulu said with the others watching from the sidelines. The four girls all through their pies but Matt ducked and the pies all hit Lulu in the face. Lulu took off her cream splattered sunglasses revealing her serious looking eyes. “Oh its on now!” she said as she ran in grabbing a pie to throw. “Well when in Minstal, do as the mistralians do,” Ringo said as she joined her followed by Narco. “Come on guys we got two thousand pies that need to be thrown,” Matt called to the others. They all got the idea and grabbed pies throwing them at each other.

                That night Viper was back in a cell, separated from her snakes, waiting to be transferred back to the Iron Rock. “Ugh!” she said as she paced back and forth in the holding cell. “I should have surfaced further away, I should have brought more snakes, I should have attacked that rabbit before she attacked me…” “You should have not gone for revenge in the first place,” a confident feminine voice said from outside the cell window. Viper turned to face the exterior wall as it began to melt into concrete slag revealing Cinder Fall with Mercury and Emerald behind her. “Who are you?” Viper asked in suspicious of the woman. “Meet our superior,” Mercury said gesturing to Cinder. “Now if you’re done with your little vendetta, I have other work for you,” Cinder said with a devious smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on team DERR go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/RWBY-OCs-Team-DERR-656723161  
> For more information on Viper Mamba go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/RWBY-OC-Viper-Mamba-656723389  
> For more information on Phineas Parchment go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/RWBY-OC-Phineas-Parchment-656723506


	15. Dive, Dive, Dive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the students of Beacon are sent off to shadow huntsmen on specialty missions, team RWBY ends up on a sub aquatic adventure to salvage treasure from the deep.

Chapter 14 Dive, Dive, Dive

 

                The members of team RWBY walked into the Beacon Academy amphitheater for an assembly of the first years. After all the trouble they kept getting into over the past few months, it was nice to just have a normal school activity. They took their seats and the assembly started. Matt stepped out onto the stage and fired a shot into the air to quiet the students.

                “Ok everybody, today we are going to be talking about Huntsman specialties.” The screen above him went on and projected a list with various Icons next to them. “Now I’m sure you all know huntsman missions fall into one of six categories; search and rescue the retrieval of persons missing persons and or property, search and destroy the elimination of Grimm, perimeter defense the protection of the of kingdom boundaries from Grimm, village security the protection of villages from Grimm, bounties the hunting and capture of wanted criminals, and escort escorting civilians through hazardous areas. However…” more symbols appeared on the screen attached to the other symbols. “Every mission has various aspects to consider. Environment for example, I know a team that is train specifically for operating in arctic environments. Another example would be team STKR. They specialize in in search and destroy missions however, they can’t do missions to clear out Grimm occupying settlements that people want to reclaim do to the fact they have a problem with leaving behind a lot of collateral damage. Plus, there are technically other jobs that don’t fall under these categories; information gathering, peace keeping, body guard, and currier missions for example.”

                Matt changed the image on the screen to a chart of team names. “Today you will be receiving your assignments for two-week missions. Each team will be assigned to a single, pair, or team of huntsman that specialize in a specific type of mission.” Matt pulled out his scroll tablet and opened it to look at the assignment sheet. “Ok let’s see. Team CRDL you four will be tailing Scotch Marshal and Lonan Straight on a deep territory mission. Pack your hiking boots and tents boys. You won’t be seeing civilization for a while, and I hope you like beans,” Matt joked. “Team JNPR, you will be shadowing team STAR on urban peace keeping in the Grimm’s Cage here in Vale. Do your selves a favor and try to stay on Al’s good side. I don’t want to have to scrape you of the street,” Matt said. “Team SSSN, you will be joining team ROOC on an escort mission to Mistral and back.” “As for team RWBY… Oh, well I hope you girls don’t mind getting wet, you’ve been assigned to team SPAT,” Matt said. “Who is Team SPAT?” Ruby asked. “I’ll tell you later.” Matt finished off reading the other team assignments. “Alright folks pack your bags; your missions start tomorrow. You’ve each been sent an email with details and where and when you are to meet your huntsmen.” The class ended and the students all took off to pack their bags, except for team RWBY. They still had questions about their assignment.

                They found Matt in his apartment playing pool with himself. “Hey girls, what’s up?” he asked as he chalked his que. “Matt who exactly is team SPAT?” Weiss asked. “What is a spat?” Ruby added. Matt lined up his shot to strike the number four ball. “Well to answer Ruby’s question, a spat is basically a baby oyster,” he said as he struck the que ball and the balls bounced around the table knocking three solid balls into the pockets not knocking any of the striped balls in. “As for who team SPAT is, they’re a huntsman team that specializes in aquatic salvage of ships sunk in Grimm infested waters. You didn’t read your emails?” Matt sat on the side of the table with his que behind his back and lined up another shot. “Well we skimmed it,” Yang said hesitantly. “I figured,” he said as he took his shot causing a chain reaction that knocked the four more solid balls into the pockets. “Well if you’re coming with us we’ll be fine,” Ruby said to Matt. “Sorry rosebud but I got other work to do here on campus. With all the first years off campus for two weeks I’ll have a lot of time to kill so I can catch up on some paperwork, might take a mission or two just to stretch my legs, maybe even go visit my mother.” “You’re not coming,” Yang said in a tone that said she wasn’t happy about it. Matt had just knocked the remaining solids into the pockets leaving him only the eight ball. “To tell you the truth I would tag along, but trust me you do not want me to be close to you around water. I’m a living battery; every time I fight in the water I electrocute everything within a hundred yards. You do not want me there.” Matt lined up his shot. “Eight ball corner pocket.” He took his shot and sunk the black ball in the specified pocket. He slung the que over his shoulder saying, “perfect game.”

                “So, what is team SPAT like?” Blake asked. Matt put his que on the rack and led them to his office. He opened a filing cabinet and went through his files. “Let’s see here; team RAZR, team STAR, team STKR, ah here we go team SPAT,” he said pulling out a file. He sat at his desk while he took a small data drive out of the folder. He plugged it in to his computer and displayed it on his large wall screen. He stepped over to the screen opening the file in his hand. “Ok we will start with the team leader, Shore Nemo,” he said as he tapped the screen and a rotating 3D model of Shore Nemo along with one of his weapon various statistics and information.

                From the picture and statistics, they could tell he was twenty-one. He had grey hair with black running up the middle, a lightly tanned complexion, and blue eyes. He stood proud one arm crossing behind his back with the other at his side holding a dark navy-blue skipper hat with a gold braid along the front over the bill and a gold emblem of crossed anchors. He wore an off-white turtleneck under a dark navy blue double-breasted jacket with gold rings on the cuffs and gold epaulets, a pair of goggles around his neck, dark grey pants, black leather boots, and a brown leather belt with a sort of spool of chain on it.

                “Shore Nemo is the leader of team SPAT. He is an expert navigator, diver, and underwater combatant. Shore knows the oceans of Remnant better than anyone else. He’s a perfectly pleasant person, always professional, and rarely let’s his emotions show. However, his one weakness is his love of the sea. Expect to get a number of lessons on ocean life.” Matt changed the 3D model of Shore to one of him in a more combative pose with his weapon, what looked like a pair of anchors on a chain connected to the spool of chain on the back of his belt. “His weapon Atlantia is a unique one. It’s a pair of anchors and chains he swings around with sharp hooking edges and points. The anchors can combine into an anchor like staff that converts into a harpoon gun. Individually the anchors can convert to swords and pistols.” He changed the 3D model to one of Shore using his semblance. “His semblance is called air breather. Yes, I know that sounds redundant but let me explain. Shore can inhale water and convert it to breathable air. He can also exhale that air to create air pockets that he can manipulate, very helpful when you work underwater, and you need to make large things float up from the bottom.” He went to a profile image of Shore from his huntsman registration. “You shouldn’t have any trouble with Shore. He’s a nice guy.”

                Matt switched to the next profile. “Next up is Flannery Piper.” A new set of images showed up with additional information and statistics. From the 3D model Flannery was a young woman of about 18 with short brown hair, under a red newsboy style hat with goggles on it. She wore a red long sleeve shirt rolled back to the elbow under short overalls with gold button and cuffed at above the knee, black tights that stopped at the ankle, brown work boots, and off-white work gloves.

                “Her family owns the Piper Ship Company and comes from a long line of ship builders. If it floats she can fix it. She got a fiery and enthusiastic personality.” He switches to a combative pose of Flannery, this time with extra equipment. She held a drum shotgun with a top fold stock and had knee, elbow, and shoulder pads shaped like turtle shells as well as similar shells on the back of her heels, her forearms, and a large one on her back. “Equipment wise Flannery is an arsenal. Her primary is Super Smash, a drum shotgun that converts to a large mallet and a large wrench staff. Few people know this, but her weapon originally didn’t have the wrench form. She added it after she met Narco during her time as a student. Her shotgun fires special flechette shotgun shells made to function underwater.” ‘What’s a flechette?” Yang asked. “Basically, it’s like a type of dart. Standard bullets don’t function well underwater but the shape and weighting of flechettes allows them to damage targets under water with decent range. As for the turtle shell like armor it mainly serves as her diving equipment as she is the only member of team SPAT without a natural ability to function underwater. The main pack is an aquatic jet propulsion device as well as her oxygen supply. The shells can convert to different forms depending on the type of dust she applies to them, but you’ll see those in the field. On land the backpack has another function called flood mode. The pack becomes a high powered pressurized water system with four unique spout types. The sprayer can shoot water blasts that can pierce steel. The hover spouts allow short term flight. The speed spout builds up a single high-powered discharge that allows her to close distances fast. Finally, the rocket spout uses a single high-powered discharge to launch her vertically for great distances.” He changed the image to a diagram of the shell backpack. “When not in combat the shells on her arms, legs, feet, and forearms retract up to the main shell on her back. The smaller shells fit inside each other and then the shoulder shells flip back sort of hanging off the main shell and the knee shells attach to the bottom.” Matt changed the image to her semblance. As for her semblance, she has the ability to alter the weight of herself or anything she touches.” He shifted to her profile picture. “All in all, she’s pretty easy to get along with, but don’t get in her way when she’s trying to fix something and don’t offer help, if she wants help she’ll ask you for it. Of course, that is a rare occurrence.”

                He shifted to the next team member, another young woman. She had bright sea green hair tied in two short pigtails low on her head with a beaded braid down the left one and a light purple flower on the side of her head. She wore a blue green tube top bikini top under a light blue and purple open front midriff top similar to Emerald’s top, light blue shorts under a sea green sarong miniskirt with and open side and a purple floral pattern on is, a pair of slacked purple belts holding her weapons on her back hips, blue sandals, and a set of goggles around her neck. “Next is Aqua Teal, one of the team’s two main divers. Born in Vacuo, she was raised on the shores of Pearl Beach one of Remnant’s greatest beaches surfing. She was on her way to being a pro before a surfing contest she was at was attack by Grimm. She then decided to become a huntress. The kids a real free-spirited spitfire always looking for the next rush. There is nothing she loves better than being in the water. However, she can be a bit of an airheaded ditz sometimes not to mention a little childish,” He changed to the combat images of her. “Aqua’s weapon of choice is two underwater submachinegun katar blades known as the Pacific Currents. They fire specially designed torpedo rounds that can fly through water with enough force to penetrate targets. For her semblance she has the ability called fish tail.” He changed the image to her semblance. However, she looked quite different in this picture. Above her belts she looked the same but below them she had a sea green mermaid tail with light blue fins and gills on her neck. “Aqua’s semblance is a shapeshifting based one that allows her to transform her legs into a fish tail and grow gills, very useful in the work team SPAT does. She can also grow scales on her body that function as ablative armor against attacks,” He changed to her profile image. “You don’t have to worry about getting along with Aqua. She’s a fun-loving girl with a bubbly personality. Trust me, you’ll love her.”

                He changed to the last profile of a young man with messy blue hair and intense yellow eyes. He wore goggles on his forehead, a closed blue black and light grey jacket with a high collar that covered his lower face. The jacket had various loose white straps hanging off its arms and along the bottom that made it look like a strait jacket and long zipper openings along his upper back and on his forearms. In addition, he had black fingerless gloves, black pants with zipper openings on his calves and blue sneakers. “Well he’s intimidating,” Blake said. “Yeah, meet Mako Tooth he’s a rare breed, both figuratively and literally.” “What does that mean?” she asked. “Well he’s actually a lot like you Blake.” “What do you mean?” the Cat Faunus asked. Matt changed the image of Mako to one. His outfit was relatively the same except that it was in White fang colors and he wore a shark like Grimm mask. “You’re not the only one who left the White Fang. Mako was a White Fang saboteur that specialized in sabotaging ships belonging to the Schnee Dust Company. He would swim up along the hull of ships with explosives and blow holes in them. But he always did his best to not hurt anyone, planting the charges so the ship was guaranteed to sink but would sink slow enough to give the crew time to abandon ship.” Matt changed the screen to a news clipping with a headline reading “Dust ship explodes, injures seven.” Mako was responsible for injuring seven sailors when he tried to sink a ship. He didn’t know whether it was bad intel, or he was lied to, but he blew charges on a ship he though was carrying a shipment of refined earth dust meant for the construction of a new SDC facility that would exploit more Faunus. In reality, it was carrying a shipment of weapons grade fire dust crystals. Mako’s charges ignited the dust and the whole ship went up in flames. After that he left the White Fang and dedicated himself to be a huntsman.”

                “Wait what kind of Faunus is he? I don’t see any animal traits on him?” Yang asked. Matt changed to the next image. The zippers on Mako’s clothes were open with shark fins were extended through them, a black collar device around his neck, and had a mouth full of several rows of razor sharp shark’s teeth. “Woah, now that’s a face only a mother could love,” Yang joked. “Don’t make quips about his appearance while you’re with them. He doesn’t like his teeth, they make people uneasy around him. One time a little girl screamed in terror at the sight of his teeth.” What’s with the collar, that’s just an insult to Faunus, wearing a collar like an animal,” Blake said in disapproval. “It’s not that kind of collar. Mako is a rare aquatic Faunus, a great white shark to be specific.” Why are they so rare?” Weiss asked. “Well most Faunus are based on mammals because they tend to have more compatible genes for reproducing. Reptile, insect, and aquatic Faunus have less compatible genes and require the Faunus’s partner to be the same type of Faunus to ensure these rare Faunus traits. Aquatic Faunus are even more rare because its far more difficult for them to live in modern Remnant.” “Why’s that?” Weiss asked. “Aquatic Faunus have one crippling trait, gills. They can’t breathe outside of water so interacting with modern civilization was difficult for aquatic Faunus in the past, so they had to live in small tribes underwater. Eventually these collars were invented.” Matt changed the image to a diagram of the collar. “The collar uses water dust crystals to provide a constant stream of water into his gills, so they can breathe on land.”

                Matt change to an 3D model of Mako in a combat pose. His weapon was a pair of gauntlets shape like shark heads. “Mako’s weapon of choice is called the Jaws, a pair of gauntlets with opening chomping jaws and hydro jets to help propel punches underwater. The heads on the gauntlets can launch out on cables to chomp onto targets and the main gauntlets have built in flechette shotguns.” He changed the image to one of Mako’s semblance. “Mako’s semblance is electro static reception. Every living thing as well as Grimm produces a small electrostatic field. Granted its incredibly small charge but for Mako it’s enough. He can detect targets around him by detecting these fields. No living thing can hide from him.” Matt switched the picture to the profile image. “I suggest keeping your distance. Mako is a man with a scarred past. He lives in constant guilt and will do whatever he can to pay for his crimes, but you can trust him. He’ll go out of his way to protect others.”

                Matt changed to an image of all of team SPAT. “And that’s the unit.” “Well this is going to be interesting,” Yang said. “I still wish you would come with us,” Ruby said to Matt. “Kid I can’t go with you on every mission,” Matt said as he filed away the team SPAT file. Matt turned back to see the girls were upset about it. “I’ll tell you what, how about I take you guys down to the docks myself?” he offered. The girls all looked at each other wordlessly conversing. “Works for us,” Ruby said answering for the group. “Alright go pack your bags girls, we leave in the morning. Don’t forget to pack to get wet, you’ll be spending a fair amount of time in the water,” he said as the girls left to pack their bags. “And don’t you dare pack Zwei!” he yelled down the hall after them.

                The next day they threw the girls’ bags in the trunk of Matt’s custom muscle car Eligos and took off for the harbor. Matt opened the convertible roof to let the air in. Matt inhaled deeply, “Ah, beautiful day, perfect for starting a voyage.” “So, team SPAT has their own salvage ship?” Weiss asked. “Not exactly. None of you girls are claustrophobic right?” Matt asked cryptically as the harbor came into view from the highway and they saw it, a large shark shaped submarine. “Woah,” the girls all said in awe. They pulled into the harbor and up to the dock team SPAT’s sub was docked.

                As they pulled the girls’ bags out of the trunk, the noticed a young man sitting on a mooring post practicing tying knots with a short piece of rope then recognizing him as Shore Nemo from the profile Matt showed them. “Shore!” Matt called to the sailor getting his attention. Shore pocketed his knot rope and popped to his feet dusting himself off before walking over to them. “Hey Shore, how you doing you salty dog?” Matt asked shaking his hand. “No worse for wear,” Shore said in a Yorkshire accent. “I wasn’t aware you would be tagging along on this little field trip.” “I’m not, just dropping off your new cabin girls,” Matt said gesturing to the girls. “This is Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang,” he said gesturing to each of the girls. “A pleasure ladies. I do hope we can make this a productive trip,” Shore said as he shook each of their hands. “When we were told we were told we were going to be working with salvagers, I thought we were going to be working on a boat, not a submarine,” Weiss said. “Yes, she is a beautiful vessel. Well best we get you girls aboard and your gear stowed away. We set sail in an hour,” Shore said as he stepped on to the gangplank onto the sub. “Alright girls, listen to the members of team SPAT and watch each other’s backs,” Matt said saying goodbye to the girls as they boarded the sub. Matt got into his car and drove away. As he pulled out of the harbor, he dialed a number on his scroll, “Hey it’s me, the last of the students are gone. We now have two weeks so roll it in.”

                “Alright minnows,” Shore said as he turned a wheel opening a hatch, “Down the hatch. Throw all your bags down to Flannery.”  “Shore called down the hatch, “Flannery incoming.” One by one the girls dropped their bags down the hatch for Flannery to catch. “Alright girls into the hole,” Shore said. The girls all climbed down into the sub followed by Shore sliding down the ladder himself into a small room. There they meet Flannery who had all their bags with her. “Ladies this is Flannery, our main engineer,” Shore said introducing his teammate. “Nice to meet you girls. I’d love to stay and chat, but I have to get the engines ready for departure, so if you would excuse me,” Flannery said and left to prep the engines.

                The girls grabbed their bags and Shore guided them out. They moved down the narrow hallway with windows along the side that showed some sort of tunnel filled with water when Ruby tripped on the lower lip of a bulkhead hatch, causing all the other girls to trip piling on top of her. “Do watch the knee knockers,” Shore said. “Who makes a hall with a bunch of hurtle in it?” Weiss asked in an annoyed tone. “Because they’re bulkheads, the whole sub is broken up into compartments, if a hole forms in the sub’s hull we just seal off the affected compartment, so we don’t sink to the bottom. The hatches have to have such a high lip, so they can seal properly. You just need to get used to them,” Shore said. Shore led them down the hallway into a fairy large room saying, “Welcome to the Parlor.”

                It was an open space with ornately sculpted support ribs along the arching walls and ceiling. In the back corner was a miniature library with a curving corner set of bookshelves with a pair of plush Lansing leather chairs, and end table, and a large fancy floor globe of Remnant. On the side wall was a large television with a couple of Lansing leather couches. Next to the reading area was an L shaped bar with a window and door into the galley plus a pair of dining booths. On each side of the room was a large circular mechanical iris over convex windows each with a curved Lansing leather couches. In the middle of the room was a spiral staircase leading to compartments above. The far end of the room is curved into a U shape with full panoramic window with closed triangular plating over it and the center of them stood a grand piano. All the windows had red velvet curtains on brass rails and various paintings of ships and ocean scenes adorned the walls. The floor was made of acrylic to be a huge window to reveal the water under the sub through a tank of some sort with hull plating closed over it. In the center of the room sat what looked like a small pool connected to the tank in the ground about six feet in diameter with windows along the side and a clear hatch to open it on top. The walls were done in stained wood paneling and brass detail while the rest of the metal of the hull had a dark patina that gave the room an aged Victorian look and feel. “Wow, I expected this place to be all dank and rusty inside, but this is nice,” Weiss said admiring the fancy room. “This vessel is our home. We can be at sea for days if not weeks. I see no reason we should not be comfortable in our own home. We have somewhat limited space aboard, so we have to this room serves as our living room, dining room, TV room, and music room. Now above us are the crew cabins,” Shore said as he guided them up the spiral staircase where they found themselves in a short hallway.

                Shore knocked on one of the doors, but no one answered. “Guess no one’s in,” he said as he opened the hatch. Inside was a room of eight in wall bunks like in a sleeper bus, four on each side with a set of large dressing lockers at the end on each side, several surfboards hanging from the ceiling, and another small pool like the one in the parlor in the back. “This is the girls cabin, the boys’ is across the hall,” Shore said. Suddenly a lump in one of the top bunks began to stir. “Aqua!” Shore called waking the sleeping form. “Hang ten!” she yelled as she popped awake hitting her head on the ceiling of her bunks and falling off the bed holding her head. “Ow,” Aqua groaned. “Aqua weren’t you supposed to be helping Mako clean the salvage bay?” he asked disapprovingly. “Ugh, I was tired so Mako said he’d take care of it and I should get some rest,” she said. All Shore could do was tip the bill of his hat up and hold his head as he lightly shook it. “Girls meet Aqua our resident ditz,” he said. “Hey!” Aqua said pouting. She popped to her feet saying, “Nice to meet you girls.” “Wait so we’re all staying in the same room, the four of us plus Flannery and Aqua?” Blake asked. “Like I said earlier we have limited space, so no one gets their own room.” “Well pick a bunk and a locker kids and just drop your bags anywhere,” Aqua said. “Aqua isn’t it about feeding time?” Shore asked. “Oh right, I almost forgot,” she said as she ran off to do something. “Feeding time?” Weiss asked. “You’ll see,” Shore answered cryptically. The girls each pick a locker to throw their bags in and a bunk. Ruby and Yang took the top two on the opposite side of the bunk Aqua was sleeping in and Weiss and Blake took the bottom two.

                After they unpacked Shore lead the girls to the torpedo room next to them. “What would you need torpedoes for?” Blake asked. “Yeah this room is left over from the old design. This sub was originally designed during the Great War as a guerilla warfare vessel. It was meant to torpedo enemy ships and insert aquatic commandos behind enemy lines. We had the sub modified for our purposes. We kept the torpedo tubes just in case. We’ve had to us them against extra-large Grimm before and we carry a special kind the blows shrapnel in all directions to thin out large schools of aquatic Grimm,” Shore said as they moved to another spiral staircase further back and climbed higher.

                At the top of the stairs was the bridge. It had two work stations, an old-fashioned ship’s helm, a panoramic front window, and a digital map table and periscope in the back along plus another pool like the ones in the parlor and girls’ cabin. “This is the bridge which is obviously where we pilot the ship. The front two consoles are for sonar and dive controls,” Shore said. “Oh, and a periscope,” Ruby said as she jumped up grabbing onto the handles and pulling it down to look into it. “Careful with that kid, that’s not a toy,” Shore said as Ruby let go of the periscope and Shore pushed it back up to its storage position. “Hey shore what’s this?” Yang asked looking at a plaque on the wall. “V.S. Submariner,” she read. “That’s the sub’s name. Every ship that has a dedication plaque signifying it was an official ship of a certain military. This sub was a vessel of the Vale military before it was disbanded after the Great War in favor of huntsmen and huntresses,” Shore said. 

                Next Shore led them down to the Parlor and towards the back of the sub into the engine room. “Hey Shore, who plays the Piano?” Weiss asked as they passed through the parlor. “I do, it helps me think,” he said as they continued up. They entered the engine room where they found Flannery tightening a huge bolt. She had her shotgun in its wrench for and locked around the bolt as she pulled on the bolt that wouldn’t budge. “Need a hand Flannery?” Shore asked. “I got it,” She said as she pulled herself on top of the wrench. She activated her semblance to increase her weight and the bolt began to tighten. The room was full of pumps, gears, drive shafts, and a large dust reactor. “Welcome to my happy place,” Flannery said as she removed her wrench and converted it down to its compact form and putting it on her back. “Watch your heads there are a lot of moving parts in here,” she said as she opened a panel and leaned into it, her whole upper body bending over the lip, down into the side compartment and started banging around inside.

                After that, Shore led them down into the lowest parts of the sub. They stepped into a large room full of junk and scrap. “This is the cargo bay where we store all the stuff we salvage,” he said as he guided them into a locker room of sorts that was divided into two sides with an H shaped wall between them. “This is the dive locker where we store our diving gear and change into our diving gear.”

                Next her lead them out of the Dive locker and into a large room. It had winch equipment on the ceiling and various salvage equipment such as lifting bags, underwater cutting torches, pumps, compressors, sand blowers, and other various equipment. The bulk of the floor space was taken up by a large moon pool with a hatch at the bottom to open up the ocean floor below.  In the back of the room sat Mako, sitting in a shadow cleaning out a disassembled pump in silence. “This is the salvage bay. This is the room where we pull anything we salvage into the sub. We balance the air pressure, so we can open the large bottom hatch to bring things aboard without the room flooding. Shore then noticed the anti-social Mako and said, “Mako come say hello to our new crew members for the next few weeks.” Mako looked up from his work just long enough to say in a deep unfriendly tone, “Hello.” Mako returned to his work. “You’ll have to forgive him, he’s not the most sociable person. Anyway, that’s the tour. Feel free to roam, unpack your bags, and relax. We will be setting sail in about an hour if you care to join me on the bridge,” Shore said as he turned to leave.

                “Hey Shore, what are all the small pools and the water tunnels for?” Ruby asked before he could walk out of the room. As he turned back he noticed some bubbles surfacing in the moon pool. “Take a look,” he said pointing towards the water. Suddenly a bottlenose dolphin flew out of the water pulling Aqua along with it and dove back into the pool. The girls were awestruck. Aqua surfaced with the dolphin clapping and the dolphin flapped its flippers together like it was clapping. “You guys have a dolphin?!” Weiss said in awe. “Yep,” Aqua said as she pulled herself out of the water. She didn’t have her sarong or shoes on as she wrung out her hair. She reached into a bucket and pulled out a fish. “Here Bubbles,” she said as she held the fish above the water and the dolphin grabbed the fish in its mouth.

                “This is Bubbles,” she said as she knelt down to pet the aquatic mammal. “I found her as a calf while I was surfing as a kid. She was caught in an old fishing net, injured and separated from her pod; I couldn’t just leave her there. So, I got her loose and pulled her to the lagoon behind my home back in Vacuo. I nursed her back to health, but by then of course her pod was gone and she had nowhere to go. So, she just stayed with me and we’ve been best friends.” “Isn’t that right Bubbles?” The dolphin splashed her and squeaked as if it was laughing. “Why you…” Aqua said as she dove back into the water chasing the dolphin.

                “So, the tubes and the pools are for the Bubbles?” Yang asked. “Yes, they allow her to say hello across the ship plus she likes sleeping close to Aqua,” Shore said. He clapped his hands together as he said, “Well I have some last-minute preparations to make so make yourselves comfortable.”

                The girls spent the next hour unpacking their bags when the sub began to vibrate a little. “What’s that?” Ruby asked. Aqua popped her head in saying, “Hey we’re setting sail if you want to watch.” The girls followed her up into the bridge and up a ladder in the back up the conning tower and on to the deck on top of the tower where they found Shore at a small set of controls. “Ah hello girls are you ready to set out?” he asked. “Sure, but why are you driving from here? I thought you drive a sub from the bridge,” Ruby asked. “I need the view to better navigate out of the harbor,” Shore said as he turned to the controls. He flipped a switch for the radio and said into it, “Flannery how’s the engines?” “Purring like a catfish, we’re ready to go,” she said through the radio. “Mako, Aqua pull in the lines,” he called down to his teammates on the deck and they pulled in the mooring lines. “Alright give me one eighth power,” he said into the radio to Flannery and the engines roared to life. The sub slowly made its way out of the harbor and into open water before they went back into the sub sealing the hatch behind them. Shore stepped up to the helm as Aqua and Mako sat at the two forward consoles. “Alright seal all hatches, prepare to dive,” Shore said. Mako made sure all the hatches were closed and systems were go. “Ready to dive,” Mako said. Bubbles popped up in the pool at the back of the bridge squeaking happily.

                “Alright flood forward ballast tanks, make your depth eighteen, thirty degrees down bubble,” Shore said to Mako. “Flannery ahead half power,” he said into the radio. The Submariner’s nose began to sink and the whole sub angled down as it plunged into the depths. “Depth eighteen, leveling off,” Mako said as the sub leveled out. Shore locked the wheel and pulled down the periscope. “Ok surface looks clear, not a ship in sight. Aqua how’s the sonar?” he asked. “Nothing for miles captain.” “Alright, Aqua take the helm for me,” Shore said as he stepped over to the map table and opened a map on the digital tabletop. He did a few calculations in his head. “Alright Mako make your depth two hundred, thirty degrees down bubble. Aqua set course fifty degrees west full speed ahead. We should make St. Carnival by day break,” He said. “Eye captain,” the two said. The sub dove deeper and changed direction. “Flannery full speed ahead,” Shore said having taken back the wheel. “Alright, Mako you want to take the first watch?” Shore asked. “Whatever,” Mako said as he pulled out a piece of bone and a knife. He propped his feet up on the console and started carving into it. Shore locked the wheel and he Aqua and the girls went downstairs into the parlor.

                Shore pressed a button on one of the side windows and the iris covering it opened as Aqua did the same on the other. He then stepped to the piano. He picked up a remote on sitting on it and pressed the button. The plating over the panoramic front window opened. The triangle shaped plates opened like shark’s teeth as if it was a mouth. Finally, the plating over the glass bottom opened revealing the sea floor below the clear tank as Bubbles swam around in the floor tank and surfaced in her pool. The girls looked out the various windows in fascination, admiring the beauty of the undersea world around them. The water was full of various fish swimming about. Some light managed to penetrate the deep water, but was refracted about as it entered the windows casting strange shapes on the walls, floor, and ceiling. Shore sat down at the piano and cracked his knuckles. He lifted the keyboard cover and began to play. It was Toccata in D minor, an eerie tune but it seemed to fit as they dove into the mysterious world that lied beneath the waves. “This is out of this world,” Yang said as she and Ruby sat on the couch in front of one of the side windows looking out at the underwater world before her. “Yeah I know right. It gets me every time,” Aqua said as she petted Bubbles in her tank.

                As fascinated Blake was with the fish she had become more interested in the shelves of books. She ran her hands over the bindings many of them old leather probably decades old. Blake found a book with an interesting title and pulled it off the self. It was an older book with a well weathered leather cover and the binding has well-worn from the pages being opened and turn many times. She sat down in one of the chairs as she opened the book. “ _The Beast of the Menagerie Sea_ , you know that’s one of Mako’s favorites,” Flannery said leaning over her shoulder to see what she was reading. Weiss sat down at the piano next to Shore and began to play the same song on a higher key in harmony with him.

                They spent the day doing various things to keep themselves busy as they traveled through the sea. Eventually it got late, and it was time for dinner. The girls all sat in on of the dining booths as Shore and Aqua clanged about in the galley. Flannery joined them in the parlor saying, “Hello girls, how’s your day been going?” “I kind of just lost track of time staring out the window,” Yang said. “You guys have a surprisingly good selection of books here,” Blake said. “Yeah it’s one of Shore’s hobbies. We travel around a lot of Remnant so whenever we pull into port somewhere he spends his free time in bookstores, flea markets, and swap meets looking for books and other little trinkets he uses to decorate the parlor,” Flannery said. “Time to eat,” Shore said as he and Aqua carried in several plates of food. “What are we eating?” Weiss asked. “Who cares I’m starving,” Ruby said as she dug in. The girls followed suit enjoying their mystery meal. “Tastes like steak,” Yang said. “I think its chicken,” Weiss said. “Taste like pork to me,” Ruby said. Shore, Aqua, and Flannery all stifled laughs. “Actually, its fillet of puffer fish, in a sea snake kelp sauce with a side of breaded and fried barnacles,” Flannery said.  Yang, Ruby, and Weiss gagged at the knowledge of what they were eating while Blake just kept eating. “Well figures she would keep eating,” Yang said rolling her eyes. Shore, Aqua, and Flannery all laughed. “Sorry girl, the bounty of the sea platter is sort of a rite of passage on the Submariner,” Aqua said. The other three girls were hesitant, but they continued to eat.

                Just then Mako came down the stairs from the bridge. “Aqua it’s your shift,” he said bluntly. He picked up a plate of food sitting on the bar counter and walked out with it as Bubbles left to pool in the middle of the parlor and followed her upstairs through the water tubes. “What was that about?” Yang asked. “I assume Matt told you about Mako’s teeth?” Shore asked. “Yeah,” Ruby said. “Well he’s embarrassed by them and watching him eat can be a little disconcerting,” Shore said. “Poor Mako,” Aqua said. “Aqua, aren’t you supposed to be watching the bridge?” Flannery asked rhetorically. “Oh right!” she said as she ran up the stairs to the bridge. Shore and Flannery grabbed their own plates and slid into the booth with the girls.

                “So, what exactly is our mission during this trip?” Weiss asked. “Glad you asked. Are you familiar with the major storm that passed through the ocean between Vale and Vacuo?” Shore asked them. “Yeah, apparently it was a really bad one,” Ruby said. “Yeah well it sunk a whole flotilla of cargo vessels bound for Vale from Vacuo were sunk in the storm,” Shore said. “What were they carrying?” Blake asked. “Mostly airship components bound for the Crawly Airship Company’s shipyards. Apparently, they are working on a rebuilding some experimental warship that got stolen and then somehow buried,” Flannery said. “I swear that job had team STKR written all over it,” Shore said. “Yeah them plus MRLN,” Weiss said. “Anyway, most of the cargo is replaceable but there is one thing that they can’t do without, the main reactor. They completely redesigned it for this ship and they can’t afford to build a third new one. So, they hired us to find the remains of the fleet and salvage the reactor,” Flannery explained. “Will it even still work after being in the salt water so long?” Ruby asked. “According to their engineers the reactor is built of specially made materials that should be able to resist corrosion for a while. However, they said the reactor was sealed in a reinforced air tight crate. As long as the crate is intact, the reactor should be in perfect condition,” Flannery said.

                “Wait but wouldn’t the ships have sunk south of Vale? Why are we headed west?” Blake asked. “Because first we need to head to Saint Carnival,” Shore said. “What’s Saint Carnival?” Ruby asked. “I hope it’s not anything like Peaks West,” Yang said shuttering at the memory of the rowdy mountainside town. “No Saint Carnival is far tamer. It is known as a party town for passing sailors, but they have far more law enforcement keeping the town safer than Peaks West. Aside from that the town is also used as a home port for various other salvage outfits making it the salvage capital of Remnant. They also have a few shipyards in town for repairing ships that need it,” Shore said. “Don’t forget some of the best beaches and curls,” Flannery added. “So why are we going there?” Ruby asked. “Well first we need a little information. A survivor of the one of the ships is there and I want to see what he knows,” Shore said. “Besides that, we need to get you girls something to wear in the water and your weapons modified,” Flannery said. “What do you mean wear? We packed swimsuits,” Ruby asked. “Yeah but you’re going to need wetsuits for deeper water plus breathing equipment since we don’t have everything onboard,” Shore said. “Well what do you mean about modifying our weapons?” Blake asked. “Standard weapons aren’t going to work right underwater. We’re going to have to have a specialist retrofit your weapons for underwater use,” Flannery said. “What kind of modifications?” Ruby asked. “Size altering maneuvering fins to help you control motions, aquatic thrusters to increase impact or cutting force, hydrodynamic improvements, and probably a complete redesign of the ranged weapon aspects. We have a friend in town Kailani who specializes in this kind of work, so she can explain it when you meet her,” Flannery said. “Well while we’re there, do you think we can get some turf instead of this surf?” Ruby asked holding up a fork full of puffer fish before eating it.

* * *

 

                The girls woke the next morning when the Submariner made a tight turn tipping them all out of bed, Ruby and Yang falling out of their bunks first and then Weiss and Blake on top of them. Aqua and Flannery were already gone so they all got dressed and went up to the bridge to see what was going on. “What’s going on?” Weiss asked. “Sorry girls did we wake you?” Aqua asked. “No, it’s not like we were only literally thrown from our bunks,” Yang said sarcastically. “Sorry about that. We left the controls on auto pilot last night, but we accidently ran into an underwater current and were pushed a few degrees off course, so we had to make a sharp turn to get back on course,” Shore said. “Mako raise your trim twenty degrees, bring us up to periscope depth,” Shore ordered. The submarine raised closer to the surface but still keeping a fair amount of distance to it. Shore stepped over to the periscope and pulled it down. He looked into it as he did a three sixty looking for something. “There we are,” he said as he stopped turning and zoomed in. “Care to have a look?” he said offering the girls a chance to see. One by one they each took a look through the periscope to see an island town on the surface. “Is that where we’re going?” Ruby asked. “That’s it, Saint Carnival,” Shore said.

                The Submariner surfaced as they entered the harbor lagoon and they pulled up to one of the docks. Mako and Aqua climbed up onto the deck grabbing mooring ropes and jumped over onto the dock to tie the ship to mooring posts. Shore and Flannery climbed out of a hatch followed by the girls of team RWBY. Bubbles popped out of the water next to the sub squeaking to get people’s attention. “Alright Bubble go on and have fun but be back this afternoon,” Aqua called to the dolphin. Bubbles nodded before diving under and swimming away. “Where’s she going?” Ruby asked. “Oh, she’s just going out to explore, probably catch something to eat. She always finds her way back,” Aqua said.

                “Ok huddle up,” Shore said as everyone came together to converse. “Ok everyone know where they’re going?” “I’m going to restock our provisions,” Mako said. “I’m going to go look up the survivor for information on where the fleet went down,” Shore said. “And Flannery and I are going to take the girls to get diving gear and their weapons modified,” Aqua said. “As long as I’m going myself, I’m taking the cargo jeep,” Mako said as he jumped back onto the Submariner and climbed up the conning tower to the control panel. “As long as he’s taking one of the jeeps can we take the other?” Aqua asked. “Fine but Flannery drives, last time we let you behind the wheel it took Narco and Zaffre a week to put that jeep back together,” Shore said. “What jeeps?” Ruby asked. “Don’t tell me you have jeeps in the sub too,” Weiss said.

                Mako worked some controls and a large hatch running along most of the top deck of the Submariner opened to reveal a sort of garage containing two jeeps, a few ATVs, and a small boat plus various salvage tools, some surf boards, and what looked like a hydraulic crane. “I though you guys salvaged ships, what do you need all these for?” Blake asked. “Well sometimes the ship we need to salvage isn’t at the bottom of the sea. One time we had to salvage a ship that had been caught on a tidal wave and washed up a mountain. Trust me we were glad to have these to carry several hundred pounds of salvage down a mountainside,” Shore said. “How would you even get them on an island from the sub?” Weiss asked. “Inflatable airbags that inflate under the undercarriage and we tow them ashore with the boat. Then just deflate and drive on,” Shore explained. 

                Mako worked the controls and the crane arm rose out of the bay. Flannery jumped over and attached cables to points on the four corners of one of the jeeps and Mako raised it out of the bay and lowered it onto the dock. It was an open blue jeep with only a driver and one passenger seat, a large flat cargo bed, and full roll cage. The after that he pulled out the other jeep. This one was red, again with full roll cage but instead it had two rows of passenger seats in the back and a pair of surfboards on top. Mako retracted the crane and closed the hatch. “Mako, do me a favor and drop me off near Rum Road?” Shore asked. Mako got behind the wheel of the cargo jeep and Shore got in the passenger seat next to him. “Be careful and stay away from Rum Road, it always tends to be on the rowdy side,” Shore warned as he and Mako drove down the dock. Flannery got behind the wheel while Aqua got in the seat next to her and the RWBY girls got into the back two rows and they drove into town.

                Saint Carnival was beautiful town. All the buildings were done in creole architecture with plenty of rot iron balconies and friendly people waved to them as they drove by. “Hey Flannery, why did Shore not want us to go to this Rum Road?” Weiss asked. “It’s a street of nothing but bars, where everyone goes to drink, bar hop, and party. It’s known for having a lot of drunks running around and being kind of rowdy,” Flannery said. “Don’t worry girls, we aren’t going anywhere near there,” Aqua said as they continued down the road.

                They began to enter the west side of Saint Carnival. The architecture began to change to an art deco architectural style. “Welcome to West Shore,” Flannery said. “This part of the town is a lot different from the rest of the town,” Blake said. “Well the main town is more for the sailors on shore leave and where most of the ship engineers live. West Shore is more for tourists since this is where the main beaches are,” Aqua said. “So where are we going anyway?” Yang asked. “A little shop on West Sand Street called Huntsman H2O Outfitters, they’re the best in town,” Aqua said. They pulled onto a road along a beautiful white sand beach on one side and various surf shops and open-air restaurants on the other.  They drove down the street and pulled into a parking spot in front of an open-air shop. Above the door was a sign with the word “huntsman” over the word “outfitters” with a “2” between the “H” of “huntsman” and the “O” in “outfitters”. “Here we are, Huntsman H2O Outfitters,” Flannery said as they climbed out of the jeep.

                They entered the shop, it was full of various diving equipment with walls paneled in wood and metal shuttering. There was a lone woman cleaning one of the displays. She had a golden-brown complexion and black hair held back by a red bandana. She wore a white and blue spring suit wetsuit under blue board shorts and an open blue Hawaiian style shirt with a white floral pattern, brown leather sandals, and her right wrist was full of colorful braided bracelets. “Welcome to Huntsman H2O Outfitters, how may I help you?” she said as she turned from the case to see her customers. “Flannery, Aqua how you doing?” she asked when she realized she knew two of the customers and hugged Flannery and Aqua. “Good to see you too Kailani,” Aqua said. “Kailani I’d like you to meat Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, they’re Beacon students tagging along with us for a mission,” Flannery said. “Girls this is Kailani Bay, best aquatic weapons engineer this side of the ocean’s surface.” “Nice to meet you girls,” Kailani said.

                “Hey Kailani, we need these girls measured for diving gear and their weapons need to be retrofitted for aquatic combat,” Flannery said. “Alright then, step this way girls,” Kailani said. She guided the girls over to a fitting room. Kailani looked around asking, “Where the dust is Lily?” “Lily where are you, you little surf rat?” she called out. Then they noticed a deep hammock hanging in the corner rustle and a twelve-year-old girl rolled out and onto her feet. She had the same complexion as Kailani and black hair in short black pigtails under a short brim straw fedora with a blue and white striped band. She wore a dark pink and white sports swim top under a magenta sleeveless open front top, a long open blue sleeveless hoodie with white detail and extra-large sleeve openings, blue denim shorts, pukka shell necklace, leather braided bracelet, and black leather sandals. “What?!” she griped. “Girls meet my kid sister Lily,” Kailani said introducing her sister. “Lily I thought I asked you to refill the rental tanks,” Kailani said. “I did,” her little sister whined. “Alright well come help me measure these girls for wetsuits.” Lily grabbed a scroll and joined her sister and the others in the fitting room. Kailani handed the girls a small binder of various styles of wetsuits, “Alright while you’re waiting your turn go ahead and pick a style from the book.” She picked up a measuring tape, “Alright who’s first?”

                Ruby volunteered first, and she step up onto the pedestal and Kailani started measuring her reading off the measurements to Lily. “So what kind of set up are you looking at?” Kailani said. “Full wind dust powered air system for extended dive time, close fit oxygen tube to a full-face mask with the full coms system, hydro jet accelerator pack with side step thrusters, and quick jet fins,” Flannery said. “Do we really need all that?” Blake asked as Kailani measured her. “Oh, trust me you’ll want every edge down there,” Flannery said. Kailani finished measuring Yang finishing measuring the last of the girls. “Alright now what else was it you guys needed?” she asked. “Retrofits for their weapons,” Flannery said. “Right, to the workshop,” Kailani said.

                They walked over to the shops weapons workshop. “Alright so what do potential Beacon huntresses carry these days?” Kailani asked. “Wait you guys are students a Beacon? Oh, that’s so cool!” Lily squealed. “Lily really wants to be a huntress when she grows up,” Kailani said. “Oh, have you fought a lot of Grimm? What kind of Semblances do you have? What weapons do you use?” Lily started to ramble. “Easy there little sister,” Kailani said as she pushed her sister’s hat down over her eyes. “Kailani,” Lily whined. “Alright let’s see what we’ve got to work with,” Kailani said. Ruby went first pulling out Crescent Rose and fully unpacking it into its scythe form. “Wow that’s so cool, just like Qrow Branwen or Matt Vert. Oh those two are so cool, do you know them?” Lily said in amazement. “Yang and I grew up with Matt, he’s like our older brother and Qrow is our uncle,” Ruby said. Kailani walk around Ruby looking over the scythe.

                “Hm, I don’t get to do many scythes,” she said. “Let’s see high caliber sniper rifle, full blades, conversions to a compact form, and rifle form.” She took the scythe from Ruby and felt the weighting before handing it back to her. “Why don’t you show me how you use it?” Ruby stepped into a more opened space and demonstrated her fighting style. “So cool,” Lily said. “Alright we’ll have to replace the barrel to accommodate torpedo rounds, guide fins to steady the swings, articulating acceleration thrusters along the back edge, and additional triggers should do it,” Kailani said. “Exactly what are all these parts for?” Ruby asked. “Well we’ll put guiding fins on the center of mass here where the main shaft and barrel connect to the blade to help steady your swing in the resistance of water. Most weapons with such a large blade face tend to turn sideways when you swing them. The torpedo round will give you more effective range.” “What exactly is so special about a torpedo round?” Ruby asked. Kailani reached down behind the counter and pulled out a strange looking bullet. “For one a torpedo round has a larger mass, so their inertial force is greater. They have a greater mass, so their inertia prevents them from slowing down easily. The main shell casing has an initial charge like a standard round but the bullet itself is hollow with a dust based thruster in the back of the bullet to propel them as they travel through the water. The head of the bullet is designed with a drill like spiral making the bullet spin through the water as it travels through the water pulling it forward.” Is all that really necessary?” Ruby asked. “Well what’s the range on your scythe?” “Eighteen hundred meters but I don’t really use it from that far, at most maybe a hundred,” Ruby said. “Well under water cut that to about twenty-five meters underwater, but with torpedo rounds you can increase that to about five hundred.” “Ok but what about the thrusters on the back edge?” Ruby asked. “They thrusters will articulate so they can help drive the blade through the water, then you turn them to align with the main barrel to use them the way you use the rifle’s recoil.” “What are those for anyway?” Ruby asked. “Well large weapons tent to be more resistant to water and difficult to swing, especially when you are floating in the water and not able to anchor yourself against the ground. I’ll also add some small floats in various places to counteract its weight, so it doesn’t constantly drag you to the bottom. Then I’ll add a secondary trigger for the thrusters and a scrolling wheel to control the angle of the thrusters and fins.” “Sounds good just don’t change the color,” Ruby said.

                Next was Weiss and after a quick demonstration of her combat style, Kailani took Myrtenaster an examined it more closely. “Well this little beauty won’t need so much modification it pretty much already has guide fins. I’ll just add a few horizontal thrusters for stabbing and a few for slashing, and then just a few buoyancy balancers and a thruster trigger and it should be good. You’ll just have to be careful about what kind of dust you use in it. Fire won’t work, and lightning will shock everyone in the area. I suggest wind and ice should be the best.”

                Blake took her turn demonstrating her combat style. Kailani examined the weapon. “Hm, this is going to be a little more complicated. Having a clip that feeds in through the grip is fine when the bullets are relatively small, but we need to modify it to use torpedo rounds and they’re nearly twice the size. If we change the grip to fit the larger clip it won’t fit in your hand right, so I’ll have to move the clip. I think I’ll move it back and run it along the blade, then some thrusters on the hilt for stabbing, add mini thrusters along the blade and the dull edge of the hilt, we won’t need guide fins since it has such a small profile plus the blade itself acts as a guide fin, and then triggers for the thrusters.”

                Yang went last unpacking her gauntlets and demonstrating her combat style. Kailani felt the weighting of the gauntlets and examining the action. “Yeah this one is going to need a lot of work. I’m going to have to modify the shaping to make the gauntlets more hydrodynamic, add guide fins, and some high powered aquatic thrusters. I’ll have to modify the shotgun actions for flechette rounds. You want close range bird shot mini flechette shells or single slug heavy dart flechette shells?” Kailani asked Yang. “Both,” Yang said. “Alright,” Kailani said as she made some notes on a scroll tablet. “You guys picked a good day to come; we aren’t busy today, so we should have your weapons and dive gear ready by the end of the day.” Kailani said handing her scroll of notes over to one of the workshop engineers so they could start working.

                Suddenly a young surfer girl about Lily’s age ran into the shop out of breath. “Lily, grab your board, the curls are breaking six feet,” the girl said. Lily was ecstatic. “Well what are we doing standing here?!” she asked sarcastically as she started to run out of the store but Kailani grabbed by the hood. “And where do you think you’re going?” she asked rhetorically. “To go surfing with my friends,” Lily said. “Did you finish all your chores?” “Yes,” the younger sister griped. “Alright be careful,” Kailani said letting her sister go. Lily threw off her hat, hoodie, top, and sandals throwing them behind the counter as she ran out of the shop grabbing one of the surfboards leaning against the front of the shop and ran onto the beach across the street. “Six-foot curls? Wait for me!” Aqua yelled as she ran out to the jeep. She pulled off her open front top, sandals, and sarong skirt leaving her in only her shorts and bikini tube top. She grabbed her surfboard with a mermaid tail pattern on it off the top of the jeep and followed Lily.

                Kailani, Flannery, and the RWBY girls followed the two out as they ran across the street onto the beach. The two ran straight into the water and started paddling out. They each caught the first wave they reached, popping to their feet and riding it. “Wow, Aqua really is as good as Matt said she is,” Ruby said. “Man, I wish I could do that,” Yang said. “Well it’s not that hard to pick up. Tell you what, I’ll teach you girls,” Kailani said volunteering to teach the girls. “But we’re not exactly dressed for it,” Weiss said. “Women’s swimwear is in the back, I’ll put in on the Beacon tab,” Kailani said. “Beacon tab?” Blake asked. “Who do you think is paying for your diving equipment and weapon retrofits?” Flannery asked rhetorically. “Go ahead and pick something out, I’ll wax down a couple of boards,” Kailani said. “Well I’m not going to be left out,” Flannery said as she pulled a bag out of the back of the jeep and ran into one of the changing rooms. “Well don’t you have to work on the equipment for us?” Blake asked. “I got employees for that. I just give them the plans and they can get the bulk of the work done, I just need to look over the work and do the fine tuning myself,” Kailani said.

                The girls each picked out something for the beach. Ruby went with a red and black sport style swim top and black board shorts. Weiss choose a one-piece swimsuit that faded from blue to white with a matching light blue sarong. Blake went with a pair of black board shorts and a black and white rash guard. As for Yang she had always been one to flaunt herself assets a little more, so she chose a yellow bikini and a purple sarong. The girls found Flannery after changing out of her overalls and into blue board shorts and a red rash guard She was pulling down a blue and red surf board from the top of the jeep while Kailani had hung up her Hawaiian shirt and grabbed four boards for the girls, one red, one white, one black, and one yellow.

                They walked over to the beach and while Kailani started teaching the girls the basics of how to surf, Flannery joined Aqua and Lily surfing. The girls picked up the basics fast and before they knew it, they were riding the waves and doing some tricks. Ruby and the girls were all riding the same wave when Bubbles jumped out of the water swimming alongside them. Bubbles ducked under her the girls and over to Aqua further up the wave. She came up alongside Aqua who knelt down on her board and rubbed the dolphin’s back. Then out of nowhere Shore and Mako dropped in on the wave team RWBY was riding. Shore was wearing a pair of dark blue and black board shorts, no shirt revealing his crossed anchors emblem tattooed on his shoulder, a fish hook pendant, and was riding a dark blue board with and anchor design on it. Mako was wearing black board shorts, a dark blue and white sleeveless rash guard revealing a large tribal tattoo covering his right shoulder and another wrapping around his left forearm, his black breathing collar, and a lower facemask covering his mouth. “Look out below!” Shore called out as the two swooped down from behind them a passed them and the six of them road in the wave. “What are you two doing here?” Yang asked. “Well I got our information and Mako finished the shopping and got it all back to the Submariner, so we thought we catch a good wave,” Shore said. They all surfed all morning, enjoying the sun, surf, and care free atmosphere.

                After a fun morning of surfing, they all changed back into their usual clothes and went to Kailani and Lily’s favorite seafood restaurant, which just so happened to be next door to their shop. It was a small place called Squiddy’s Seafood Grill with a sea side shanty theme. The walls were covered in driftwood paneling, a large mounted Marlin on the wall, fishing nets hanging from the ceiling, various ocean themed decor all over, tables, and a driftwood diner style counter along the back. They got lunch and talked. Lily wanted to know everything about Beacon and had so many questions for Ruby and the girls.

                “So, what are other Beacon students like?” Lily asked. “They’re mostly pretty nice except for maybe one team,” Ruby said. “Although the student body is pretty colorful, Nora is so scatterbrained, Jaune thinks he’s a lady killer, and Coco can be a bit of a prima donna at times,” Blake said. “Of course, like any school it still has its bullies like Cardin and his team, but professor Vert keeps them in check,” Weiss added. “Oh, what are the professors like? I bet they’re all really cool and have tons of cool stories,” Lily asked. All the girls and the members of team SPAT could think of was professor Port and groan in their heads.

                “Well the teachers are just as colorful as the students. Professor Port has plenty of stories but they’re all so boring. Professor Oobleck is so hyperactive it’s so hard to keep up with,” Yang said. She paused waiting for Oobleck to show up yelling “Doctor!” but he didn’t. “What’s with the pause?” Lily asked. “It’s a habit Oobleck causes in his students. When you get there, you’ll understand it kid,” Shore said. “And if you think Professor Oobleck is hyperactive don’t get me started on Professor Oobleck,” Ruby said. “That doesn’t make sense,” Kailani said. “No, they were talking about Bartholomew Oobleck before. They’re talking about his niece Becky Oobleck now,” Flannery said. “Yeah, she’s just as hyperactive as her uncle if not more,” Weiss said. “What about the head master, what’s he like?” Lily asked. “Well he’s a real mystery, he’s always got some sage words of wisdom, but he never really lets anyone know anything about him. I’m not even sure his right-hand Professor Goodwitch knows whatever he’s got in that head of his,” Yang said. “Are the teachers powerful, how do they fight?” Lily asked. “Yeah they are. We all kind of underestimated Dr. Oobleck’s ability but he’s a pretty good fighter. Professor Goodwitch is really powerful, she doesn’t even really use a weapon just her semblance,” Yang said. “What about the headmaster, I bet he’s got to be the best,” Lily said. “Well we really don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows how good he is, no one’s seen him fight,” Ruby said. “But if you want the best, Professor Vert is the best,” Blake said.

                “Yeah Matt has got to be the best fighter ever,” Ruby said. “You call your professor by his first name?” Kailani asked. “Well, all the younger teachers like Matt and the younger of the two Ooblecks prefer not to be called professor. Matt says it makes him feel old,” Yang said. “That and Matt is practically our older brother,” Ruby said. “Really, you’re that close?” Lily asked. “Yeah Ruby and I grew up down the street from him, we pretty much grew up together. He’s got to be the best fighter short of our uncle Qrow,” Ruby said. “Plus, there’s his team MRLN. Matt’s team from when he was a student has stuck together and they all work at Beacon now,” Yang said. “Yeah and they’re practically still students. Those guys are more rambunctious than the students. They pull pranks, they through parties, they even start huge food fights every month. They even have a code of honor they always follow when they do that crazy stuff,” Weiss said.

                “Man, Beacon sounds amazing, now I really want to be a huntress,” Lily said. “Well, just keep training and you’ll get there,” Ruby said. “Yeah maybe but what I really need is to find a semblance,” Lily said. “Well, have you unlocked your aura yet?” Weiss asked. “No,” Lily said. “Come here,” Weiss said as she stepped off her chair with Lily. She put her hands-on Lily’s hand and chest. “Close your eyes and focus. See you soul as a force against that which would do you harm and let it envelop you. Let it surround you and embrace you. Bare you soul to the world,” Weiss said as her aura glowed white around her body. Lily’s body began to glow a light blue hew growing brighter and brighter before giving off a flash. Weiss’s hands dropped as she took a step back catching her breathe. “Are you alright?” Lily asked. “Yes, doing that can take a lot out of a person,” Weiss said. “What exactly did you do?” Lily asked. Weiss punched her in the shoulder and her fist bounced off a glowing blue barrier. “What the?” Lily asked in confusion. “I’ve activated your aura,” Weiss said. “Oh, that’s great, now how do I get my semblance?” Lilly asked. “Well it’s not that simple kid,” Mako mumbled. “Mako is right. A person’s semblance is an extension and manifestation of their soul. You don’t just get your semblance; it’s something you must discover about yourself. Give it time and do some soul searching, you’ll find it,” Ruby said. “Besides you don’t necessarily need to have a semblance to get into Beacon,” Yang said. “Yeah how did Jaune get into Beacon anyway?” Weiss asked skeptically.

                Suddenly they all heard a crash from down the street. They all popped their heads outside to see a hoard of drunken sailors staggering up the road. “Uh oh, not again,” Lily said. “What’s with those guys?” Yang asked. “Its sailors and shipwrights from the east side of town. The problem with Saint Carnival is that the east and west sides are constantly feuding. The sailors and shipwrights don’t like how the town is turning into a tourist destination instead of a ship building town like it’s been since before the Great War. Now every so often a hoard of sailors and shipyard workers get drunk and march on West Shore ranting and bugging people trying to discourage tourists from coming,” Kailani said. “Yeah but this is different,” Lily said. The drunken sailors were knocking over food stands and smashing cars on the street with pipes and makeshift weapons. “They’re going to hurt someone,” Yang said. “Yeah where’re our weapons?” Ruby asked. “They won’t be ready for hours. They’re probably in pieces right now,” Kailani said. “Don’t worry we go this,” Shore said as he and his team stepped over to the jeeps grabbing some stuff out of them. Shore hooked his reel onto the back of his hips, Flannery strapped on her shell pack and grabbed her shot gun putting it on its carrying clip on the side of the pack, Aqua strapped her scabbard belts on, and Mako strapped on a pair of bracers under his sleeves.

                The four stepped out into the road in front of the drunks. “Excuse me gentlemen, is there something you would like some assistance with?” Shore asked in a holier than thou tone. “Yeah, we want you no good tourists to get out of our town,” one of the drunken sailors stuttered out. “My good sir, these people have just as much a right to make a living in this town as you do, and they have the right to do it however they want to,” Shore said. “Spoken like a sellout!” Yelled another drunk. “Look buddy, why don’t you and your pals head back to Rum Road and drink yourselves under the table? We have better things to do?” Mako said. “Who do you think you are telling us what to do?!” another drunk Yelled as they took unstable fighting stances. “Well, guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way,” Shore griped. “Hard way? You mean the fun way,” Aqua said as she drew out her blades. Mako threw his fists forward causing his bracers to expand into gauntlets shaped like shark heads. Flannery activated her shell pack and the smaller shells popped out and locked onto shoulders, knees, elbows, forearms, and the back of her feet. She drew her shotgun and pumped it to load the chamber. Shore pulled out his anchors connected to their chains.

                The drunks all ran towards team SPAT. Flannery’s shell back opened deploying her speed spout. The water dust crystals in the pack built pressure and discharged sending her flying at the drunken sailors. She fired dropping one of the sailors before skidding to a halt on her feet converting the shotgun into its wrench form. The wrench grabbed onto another sailor. She swung the drunken sailor around and pulled the trigger. The gun fired through the wrench’s mouth sending the man flying into two others. She used her semblance to make herself lighter and activated the rocket spout in her shell pack and rocketed up into the air converting the wrench into its hammer form. She increased her weight and the weight of the hammer causing her to slam down so hard she sent out a shockwave that cracked the cobblestone street and sent several drunken shipwrights flying. She swung around elbowing another sailor in the stomach followed by kneeing another one. She used her hovering spouts so propel herself back a ways before activating the sprayer spout and fired washing away several more drunks.

                Aqua dashed forward and slashed one of the drunks followed by shooting another knocking him out. She leapfrogged over another drunken shipwright before coming down stabbing through another guy. One of the drunken shipwrights tried to swing a big hammer at her but she activated her semblance spouting scales on her arms. The hammer hit the scales and bounced off as the scales fell off. She did a pirouette holding out her blades and slashing through the drunks like a bladed top. She stopped spinning converting her blades to their SMG form and fired on several drunken sailors one by one as they approached her from various directions.

                Mako threw a punch and the shark head on his fist launched out on a cable opening its jaws. It knocked out a sailor before continuing on and bit down on a lamb post. He reeled himself in with great speed and punched another sailor. He released the jaws reeling in his other fist as he began punching through the sailors and shipwrights. He threw a punch that fired out a slug that split into several dart like flechette projectiles that knocked out several sailors. His semblance kicked in and in his mind, he could see a pair of drunks about to pounce on him with pipes, but in his mind, he could only see their glowing nervous systems over shadowy surroundings. He opened the jaws on his gauntlets catching the swinging arms of the two drunks behind him and clamped down. He swung his arms forward and the two drunks went flying with the shark heads still tethered on. They hit some more sailors and swung them around knocking back several other sailors before releasing the jaws and the two sailors he had in his grips went flying into some more sailors.

                Shore stood there as several drunken sailors charged at him. Shore threw out one of his anchors striking one of the drunks. He pulled the anchor back spinning it in a circle. He came around as he wacked another drunken sailor with the spinning anchor before throwing the other anchor out and it hooked onto another sailor. He pulled back the anchors, converting them into their pistol forms, and fired on more of the sailors. He then used his semblance to build air pressure below his feet before releasing the air pocket causing pressurized air to propel him into the air over some sailors. He converted the anchors into swords before slashing down on them. Several sailors swung down on him with pipes, wrenches, and hammers but he caught them all against his swords as he crouched down under the force. He used his semblance to build air pressure again before releasing a pressure wave forcing them off of him. He cut down several drunks before converting the swords back to their anchor forms and threw them out hooking onto a pair of lamp posts and he activated the real sending him flying into a group of sailors. He kicked through a row of sailors before flipping over them the whole group of sailors and dislodging the anchors reeling them in onto his reel. He spun around building a small pocket of highly pressurized air between his hands before forcing them forward with his palms together. The ball of air unleashed a blast of swirling air that blew away several drunken sailors.

                The sailors and shipwrights began to come to their senses and realized they were gravely out-skilled and ran. The other members of team SPAT compacted and holstered their weapons before returning to the others. “That was so cool!” Lily squealed in excitement. “That’s the job,” Flannery said. “Man, I really want to be a huntress,” Lily said. “Just master your weapon and you’ll do fine,” Aqua said as she ruffled Lily’s hair. “Ah, I haven’t picked a weapon yet,” Lily said. “Aqua just slapped her forehead. “Well why don’t we pick one now?” Ruby asked. “Oh, can we?” Lily asked her sister. “Alright, let’s go to the workshop and see what we can come up with,” Kailani said.

                They went into the workshop in where a few of Kailani’s employees were working on the new equipment for team RWBY and they went through all the different types of weapons Lily could potentially pick. They ended up spending the afternoon working on trying to find a good weapon for Lily but didn’t get anywhere. “Dust, this is hard,” Lily complained. “Well you don’t just pick up any weapon and start cutting through Grimm. The weapon’s got to fit the person. Don’t worry; you’ll figure it out,” Ruby said. “Hey girls, they’re done,” Kailani said.

                Kailani pulled out four large armored water tight cases, one in each of the girls’ colors with their emblem and put them on the work bench in front of the girls. She opened them to reveal the contents, all in shock absorbing form. “Each case contains your wetsuit, mask, fins, air dust reactor air pack and aquatic jet acceleration pack, control gloves, your new aquatic weapon, five munitions clips, maintenance tools, and diagrams for cleaning repair and reassembly,” Kailani said. Lily walked in carrying three munitions cases. She “Ok I have .50 caliber torpedo rounds for Ruby, 9mm torpedo rounds for Blake, and twelve-gauge flechette rounds for Yang on twelve round belts. Weiss’s rapier uses standard dust vials,” Lily said. Kailani reached under the workbench and pulled out the four girls’ weapons. “Wait I thought you retrofitted these?” Ruby asked. “Yeah, we realized that with all the changes we were going to have to make, it was cheaper, easier, and quicker to start from scratch,” Kailani said. Yang pulled one of her new gauntlets out of the case in its compacted form looking it over. “It doesn’t look that different,” she said. She put the bracelet on and it unpacked into active form. Now the gauntlet looked different. There were two aquatic jets on the back of the gauntlet with slim intakes towards the front, curved plating over the knuckles to make them more hydrodynamic, a guide fin on each side of the wrist, and one towards the back. “Oh, now I see it,” Yang joked.  Blake pulled out the sheathed aquatic Gambol Shroud looking it over. The cleaver scabbard was shaped differently to accommodate the new location of the ammunition clip, and there were aquatic jets along the blunt back edge. She pulled out the katana blade to reveal micro aquatic jets along the back edge of the blade, a small jet on each side of the hilt, and the clip had been moved to partially run up the back edge of the blade. She converted it to its pistol form causing the clip to reposition to stay along the collapsed blade. She felt the weighting as she said, “Looks good.” Ruby pulled out her new aquatic Crescent Rose in its inactive form and converted it to its scythe form. It now had a guide fins on each side where the shaft and the blade connected, the shaft seemed slightly thicker to accommodate the new form of ammunition and a row of aquatic jets along the back edge of the blade. “Nice!” Ruby said. Weiss pulled out her new rapier with new aquatic jets on it. “Elegant but functional,” she said.

                Suddenly a thunder cracked outside. Shore looked outside to see clouds moving in. “Uh-oh, looks like bad weather,” he said. “We’d better get back to the Submariner. We’re going to want to get the jeeps in the vehicle bay before it rains,” Flannery said. “We’ll have to test the equipment tomorrow when the weather clears up,” Aqua said. They headed back to the sub at the harbor and loaded the jeeps back into the sub before the rain started and Bubbles made her way back into the safety of the submarine.

                Aqua checked the weather report and said, “oh dear.” “What’s up?” Mako asked. “It looks like the weather is going to be pretty bad and the issued a flood advisory for the harbor area,” Flannery said. “Alright cut the mooring lines we’ll move into deeper waters and ride it out in on the bottom,” Shore said as he moved onto the bridge. The Rain started as they pulled out of the harbor and the water began to become rough. They were all on the bridge as the ship rocked about. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were being thrown around struggling to steady themselves and water sloshed in Bubbles’ pools as the sub dove under the surface. The sub moved deeper until the set down on the ocean floor where the water was calm. “Dropping the anchors,” Shore said as he pulled a lever on the wall and four anchors two at the front and two at the back released and anchored the sub to the bottom. “Alright we’ll ride it out down here for the night.”

                Everyone was sitting around the parlor doing whatever to pass the time. Ruby was fooling around in the galley looking for cookies, Weiss chose to take a nap down in the girls’ cabin, Yang and Aqua were playing a video game on the TV while Bubbles watched from her under the floor while running back to the pool opening for air every so often, while Flannery was working on the engines. Blake decided to continue reading The Beast of the Menagerie Sea. She reached for the book when Mako’s hand met hers on the spine of the book. “Oh sorry,” Blake said. “Oh no go ahead, I’ve already read it I was just going to read it to pass the time,” Mako said gesturing him to go ahead. He sat down in one of the leather seats and pulled out the piece of bone and the knife from before and began to carve into it while Blake sat down and continued to read the book from where she left off. Every so often Mako’s eyes would quickly look at her before looking back at his work.

                Even though they were deep underwater they could still here the thunder cracking above the surface. “Yikes, haven’t seen a storm like this in a while,” Shore said as he worked on a large wall chart in the parlor with a magnifying glass on an articulating arm. “Hey Shore, what are you doing?” Ruby asked as she looked over his shoulder as she munched on a bag of cookies she found in the galley. Shore took out a small notebook reading a few notes. “I’m marking off the original course the Crawly cargo fleet was supposed to take,” he said as he took a pencil out from behind his ear and started marking preplanned course adjustments and the path the ships were supposed to have traveled from Vacuo to Vale. He took a step back and looked at the map. He crossed his arm and held his chin as he thought. Ruby thought she’d be funny and copied him. He reached into Ruby’s cookie bag taking a cookie and started munching on it. “Alright so if this is the course they planned…” Shore looked in his small notebook again. “On clear seas the ships would have done about twenty knots to be safe in the open ocean.” He grabbed a calculator out of the small desk next to the map and did some calculations. “According to the survivor I met in Saint Carnival, the storm hit the fleet was approximately one hundred and three hours into the voyage. So that would have put the fleet about here when the storm hit them,” Shore said as he put a mark on the map and an annotation of its meaning. “So that’s where the fleet should be?” Ruby asked. “No, the ships wouldn’t have sunk as soon as the storm hit them.” Shore looked in his notebook again. “Let’s see take into account surf height, wind speed, wind direction and general design of the ships…” Shore ran some more calculations. “The first of the ships should have sunk about here.” He said as he marked a spot on the map. “Just off the coast of the Tombstone Islands.” Shore pulled over the magnifying glass to enlarge the tiny islands. “So that’s where we’re going?” Ruby asked. “Yes, but first we are going to get put you girls through a diving crash course.”

                The next day the weather had cleared up. They pulled up the anchors and sailed to a large lagoon on the far side of the island. They dropped the anchors again but this time the main sub was several meters above the bottom. “Alright them let’s get wet,” Shore said. Everyone went down to the dive locker. The RWBY girls opened their new dive cases and pulled out their new gear changing into it. “So where exactly are we?” Blake asked as she changed. “Bounty Bay Reef,” Shore called out from the other side of the dividing wall where he and Mako were changing. “It’s a coral reef that formed on the wreck of an Atlas warship. The ship was supposed to be transporting treasure the Atlas military seized during the Great War back to Atlas. However, the ship was ambushed by a fleet of Vale ships and was cornered in this bay. Instead of letting Vale take back the treasure, they scuttled the ship with all the treasure aboard. Vale salvaged the treasure after the Great War but left the wreck on the bottom,” Flannery said. “It’s now a popular snorkeling and scuba spot for people visiting Saint Carnival.” “Is that even safe for civilians? I mean don’t they have to worry about aquatic Grimm?” Weiss asked. “No, the main lagoon is pretty deep inland with a spiraling path to reach it from open-ocean. The Grimm tend not to work their way in this far since there isn’t enough negative emotion here to attracted them,” Mako said. “It’s the perfect place for training new underwater huntsmen and huntresses,” Aqua said.

                By now everyone had finished changing into their wetsuits. Ruby had chosen a full body wetsuit cut at the wrists and ankles in black and red. Weiss’s wetsuit was white with blue and cut at the knees and elbows. Blake’s had a full body wetsuit like Ruby’s in black and detailed in a dark grey. Yang had gone with a yellow sleeveless high cut spring suit style with black detailing. Flannery had a full blue and red wetsuit patterned like overalls and Aqua just left her sarong and sandals while keeping the rest of her usual outfit. “Alright let’s get your breathing gear on,” Flannery said as she helped the girls get their dive packs strapped on. The packs wear pretty flat with primary jet ports on the bottom, smaller ones on each side, and a pair of tubes on each side of their heads. Aqua handed Blake and Yang a couple of hair ties, “You’re going to want to tie your long hair back otherwise it’s going to float into your face.” They tied their hair back and all the girls strapped diving knives to their legs. “Alright we’ll do the rest just before we hit the water,” Flannery said.

                They entered the salvage bay where they met Shore and Mako. Shore was wearing a black and blue wetsuit with a dark blue dive vest full of pockets, a knife on his calf, and his goggles around his neck. Mako had on a dark blue and black wetsuit with white detailing cut at the knee and no sleeves, a black dive belt with a pouch on the back and his goggles were around his neck.  “Ready?” Shore asked. “Yeah,” the RWBY girls said together. Flannery and Aqua helped the girls get their masks on. They were full face masks, so they could breathe through both their mouths and noses. They connected the air hoses from their packs to the masks and showed them how to start the air dust reactors to produce breathing air. They made sure the girls knew about their depth and oxygen gauges on their arms. They pulled on their dive gloves and worked their flippers on. “Alright girls make sure you don’t go to high if you don’t want the bends,” Shore said as he pulled his goggles on and pulled a lever on the wall. A large hatch in the moon pool opened up revealing access to the water and the ocean floor below. Bubbles was already in the moon pool and dove down to explore the reef below. Shore dove in breathing the sea water as if it was air. Mako removed his breathing collar leaving it close enough to the edge so he could reach it easily when he got out. With his gills now exposed, he quickly dove into the water, so he could breathe again as his fins popped out of his arms legs and back and with a swift kick he was moving through the water at impressive speed. Aqua dove in activating her semblance. As she entered the water her legs melded together and grew scales and fins becoming a fish tail while gills spouted on her neck. Flannery put on her lower face breathing mask and goggles. She gestured to the water and one by one the members of team RWBY jumped into the water followed by Flannery.

                The water was crystal clear, with plenty of light coming down from the surface. Before them was the wreck of a huge ship with plenty of openings. Coral grew across the broken hull of the ship as did it grew across the sea floor around it. The girls took a few seconds to orient themselves before swimming around a bit. “How’s the equipment feel?” Shore asked through the radio. He had a small collar on his throat that converted the vibrations of his vocal cords into speech for the others. “No restriction of movement?” “Feels good,” Yang said swimming in a loop. “Ok then let’s try the main jets,” Flannery said as she jetted up around them with a stream of bubbles coming out of the bottom of her shell pack. “Take a look at your gloves you’ll notice two buttons on the sides of your index fingers. The ones closer to the end controls each of the mini jets in your fins and the other controls the side step thruster in your packs.” The girls tested their jets and after a little trial and error they got it. “Alright now before we try the main accelerator jet you need to know how to turn with it. You’ll have to angle your bodies to control the passage of water over your bodies, effectively turning your body into a dive plane. Just press both back pack sidestep thrusters at the same time.” They girls tried it. Needless to say, it took them a while to get the hang of it, but they eventually got it.

                Shore jetted up to the girls riding pockets of compressed air on his hands and feet using a controlled explosion of air as a jet. “Looks as if you’re getting the hang of your packs, now why don’t you see how your weapons feel down here,” He said. Ruby pulled out her aquatic model scythe unpacking it into its full scythe form. She tried to take a normal swing with it but all she ended up doing was spin herself around. “Ha ha, Ruby angle your jets and pull the thrust trigger when you swing,” Shore said. Ruby rolled the scroll wheel angling the thrusters back and tried swinging again. This time she pulled the jet trigger and the jets fired causing the scythe to swing the way it should. She rolled the scroll wheel to angle the thrusters parallel to the blade and pulled the jet trigger making the blade fly closer to her. “Cool,” Ruby said when she got an idea. She straddled the shaft of the scythe and pulled the jet trigger propelling her forward like a witch on a broom and using her sidestep thrusters for turning. “Talk about a sea witch,” Shore said.

Weiss pulled out her rapier. She tested each of the thrusters on the weapon. She pulled the trigger for the linear jets and the point stabbed forward, pulling her along. “Woah, that was more powerful than I thought,” she said. “It’s just because you’re pulling the trigger all the way back. Pull it back less for less thrust,” Flannery said. She pulled out her shotgun converting it to its hammer form. She demonstrated how not pulling the trigger as far causes the main thruster on her hammer sent it swinging with different amounts of speed and force.

                Blake tested her new Gambol Shroud with in both sheathed cleaver mode and the many katana. She folded back the blade into its gun mode and took aim at a shard of hull plating that had fallen off and drifted away when it sunk. She fired the handgun, as the bullet fired a small jet on the back went off to counteract the recoil. Blake waved the bubbles from the recoil jet out of her face asking, “What was that?” “Recoil jet; without them every time you fire you would be thrown back a ways,” Aqua said as she swam up with her tail. “Is it easy to swim like that?” Blake asked. “It actually took me a while to get used to switching between having two legs and a single tail,” Aqua said. Suddenly an angel fish swam by her and her attention instantly focused on the colorful fish following it like an awestruck child. “There she goes again,” Flannery said shaking her head. “Every time a colorful little fishy swims by, she just has to follow it.”

                As for Yang, she was with Mako who was teaching her about the proper way to punch underwater. “Now remember, hold the jet trigger until the last second otherwise it will pull you along,” Mako said as he demonstrated. On her first punch Yang underestimated the amount of resistance her fingers would be under from speeding through the water and couldn’t get her fingers off the jet trigger and it ended up pulling her along and slamming into a large rock. She slowly swam out of the cloud of sand and dust that was kicked up by her impact and shook herself out. Mako launched out one of his jaws, locking it onto the rock next to Yang and pulled himself towards her. “You need to learn to time your trigger release better and strengthen you fingers to resist the resistance of the water,” he said. Yang tried again compensating for the water resistance and made a perfect punch. “There; you got it now.”

                The girls continued to practice their swimming and using their weapons. They swam about the shipwreck on the sea floor exploring it. “This is so cool,” Yang said as she swam about when Bubbles swam up next to her. She turned her back to Yang and shook her dorsal fin at her. Yang grasped the dorsal fin and Bubbles began swimming about pulling her about for a while before she started to shake her loose. “Better let go,” Aqua said and Yang let go of the dolphin. Bubbles quickly dashed up to the surface. “When she tries to shake you lose, its best to let go. It usually means she needs to go up for air and if you don’t let go soon enough she’ll try to whack you off with her tail,” Aqua said. “Well I’ll have to watch out for her love taps,” Yang said. Bubbles swam up to Aqua and she hugged the dolphin. “It’s far more than a love tap. A strike from her tail can hit up to six times stronger than any punch you could throw,” Aqua said.

                After a few more hours of fooling around they surfaced back in the moon pool of the Submariner. Mako grabbed his collar off the deck putting it on before he got out followed by the others. “Alright we’ll get stowed away and make sail for the Tombstone Islands,” Shore said as he toweled off. They all changed stowing away their dive gear and moved out of the lagoon and into open sea. “Alright we’ll swing around the tip of Saint Carnival and set course south towards The Tombstone Islands,” Shore said. “What exactly are the Tombstone Islands? Blake asked. “It’s a chain of islands off the southern coast of Vale. Anything that sinks and gets caught in the currents down there gets washed into the Tombstone islands. The entire chain of islands is a graveyard of ships with a collection of wrecks going back to the days of old sailing ships,” Mako said. “Exactly, by my calculations the ships would have started to sink right on top of one of the major currents that would carry the ships right into the islands. Hopefully we’ll get lucky and find what we’re looking for there,” Shore said as they set course.

                It would take the sub a couple of days to reach the Tombstone Islands so they all had time to kill. They played games, played with Bubbles, Blake read, and Shore played his piano. Ruby was playing catch with Bubbles, throwing a beach ball to the dolphin who would bump it back with her beak. On one of times Bubbles knocked the ball back it bounced off Ruby’s head and the dolphin kept bouncing it off her head before Ruby blocked it. Bubbles squeaked in her dolphin laugh. “What’s so funny squid breath?” she said in a perturbed tone. “Aww she just fooling around,” Aqua said as she rubbed Bubbles under the chin as she fed her a fish. Bubbles nuzzled her beak up against Aqua’s face. “You two sure are close,” Ruby said. “Yeah we’ve been together for so long. I don’t think we’ve ever been apart for more than a week or two,” Aqua said. “How did you go to Beacon then? I doubt you could keep a dolphin on campus,” Ruby asked. “Well we keep a dog,” Yang said as she joined them. “Well yeah, but Zwei is small and he sleeps in one of our beds, I mean a dolphin is so big and needs to stay in water. Where would you keep her?” Ruby asked. Shore heard what they were talking about and stopped playing the piano as he said, “Heh, well Matt figured that out for us.” “What do you mean?” Ruby asked. “Matt has always been the student’s voice in Ozpin’s ear. Even when he was a student he had a way of talking the headmaster into letting him get away with stuff. It was our first year at Beacon, Matt was still a student at the time, but he was senior. About a week into the first semester Aqua started getting homesick. We didn’t think about it much at least until she started crying in her sleep and calling out for Bubbles. We had heard rumors from other students that Matt was the big cheese that could solve any problem and would do anything to help,” Shore said. “You should have seen their dorm room. It was a hodgepodge of plants growing out of the walls, racks of Matt’s weapons collections, Lulu’s weapons workbench, and, piles of car parts from Narco’s little projects. To give them extra space Matt and Lulu slept in beds on the floor while Ringo slept in a hammock made of plants and Narco slept in a loft bed made of junk metal,” Aqua said.

                “So, we talked to Matt and his team about how Aqua was missing Bubbles. Matt had to convince Ozpin but after a long debate Matt had us on team ROOC’s ship headed back to Vacuo to pick up and transport Bubbles back to Beacon. With the help of several other students, Matt was able to modify the pools in the main courtyard connecting them with underwater tunnels and made a water tunnel into our first-floor dorm room for her. For our four years at Beacon, the school had a dolphin mascot,” Shore said. “How did they manage build all of that?” Ruby asked. “Matt’s shown you Ringo’s tunnels, right? Same principle, Ringo used the same tunneling methods to make the tunnels,” Shore explained. “I swear, every story we hear about Matt he’s pulled off some ridiculous feat,” Yang said. “That’s Matt for you, the only thing he did that surprised us more than bringing Bubbles to Beacon was the next year when he walked in to our combat class claiming to be our instructor,” Shore joked.

* * *

 

                That evening they all came together for dinner in the parlor as usual and as usual Mako just picked up his meal and left. Does he never eat with you?” Blake asked. “He usually does but he’s been eating alone as a courtesy to you girls. Eating for him involves a lot of ripping, tearing, shredding; it’s quite animalistic,” Shore said. “Don’t worry, he’s been eating with Bubbles,” Aqua said. “Not much for dinner conversation,” Weiss noted. “For Mako, Bubbles is more talkative then you think,” Shore said. “What do you mean,” Weiss asked. “You’re familiar with Mako’s electrostatic reception semblance?” he asked. “Yes, it allows him to detect the small electrical fields produced by our nervous systems,” Weiss said. “Well it’s a little more powerful than you think. Normally Mako’s sixth sense is omnidirectional allowing him to detect the broad electrical fields. He’s described it as seeing a static energy field around them. However, he can also focus the sense in a certain direction. When he doesn’t have to broaden his focus around him, he can focus enough to detect individual electrical impulses in a creature’s mind.” Wait you’re saying he can read minds?” Weiss asked skeptically. “Not exactly, the average human or Faunus mind is too complex for him to translate. However, Bubbles has a less complex mind so it’s easier for Mako to understand her thoughts better. He can’t fully read her mind perfectly, but he gets the general idea of what she’s trying to communicate. He’s spent several years with Bubbles trying to develop an understanding of how to understand her. She doesn’t exactly think in English, so he had to come to understand how different impulses represented different ideas. Next to Aqua, Mako is the closest to Bubbles,” Shore explained. “Matt said he’s always beating himself up about his past,” Ruby said. “We don’t talk about that,” Flannery said. Suddenly Blake got up with her plate and walked out of the Parlor with it. “What was that all about?” Aqua asked.

                Blake found Mako in the dive bay sitting on a crate next to the pool with his plate on another crate next to him, he had his collar open revealing his mouth, and Bubbles sitting in the water in front of him. He would throw fish from a bucket next to him to Bubbles every so often as he ate his own food, tearing meat from a drumstick and shredding it between his teeth. Shore was right, he did have an animalistic eating style. She watched in silence behind him as he talked with Bubbles. “So, what do you think of the girls?” Mako asked the Dolphin. Bubbles squeaked a little as if she was answering. “Yeah, they are a colorful group,” he said to the dolphin. Bubbles chirped some more. “Because I don’t want to scare them with my eating habits.” She squeaked and chirped some more. “No, it’s not because one of them is a Schnee. I left that life long ago.” The dolphin made a sound that inferred it was saying, “Really?” in a skeptical tone. “Alright I’ll admit I find having Weiss aboard is a little disconcerting,” he said as he tossed her another fish.

                “Try living with her,” Blake said startling Mako. He flipped around taking a defensive stance and instinctually flared his teeth. Blake could help but flinch at the sight of the razor-sharp teeth. “Oh, it’s just you,” he said as he calmed down. “Weiss can be a little disconcerting for anyone meeting her for the first time,” Blake said as she pushed another crate up next to his and sat down. He turned to take his plate and leave but she said, “Don’t go, I don’t mind the teeth.” He paused for a minute before sitting down again. They began to eat in silence; before too long Bubbles started begging. Mako took the bucket next to him and placed it between him and Blake. “Care to try?” Blake took a fish from the bucket holding it over the water and Bubbles snagged it from her hand. Blake chuckled a bit. “Such a smart animal,” she said as she petted her beak. Mako just kept eating, doing his best not to look too savage as he did.

                “You know you’re not the only person with a checkered past,” She said. Mako set down his plate and stood up walking over to a locker. He opened it and pulled out a shark shaped Grimm mask. He looked at the mask seeing his past in its eyes, seeing ships burn. “I joined the White Fang just before they started to adopt their violent tactics, and I was apprehensive, but I thought if I just stuck with it things would improve, but it didn’t, it just got worse and by then I was in too deep to just leave. But when I saw that one ship go up in flames and heard how many people were hurt I couldn’t do it anymore!” he yelled as he dropped the mask and punched the wall only to hurt his own hand. “But I still can’t forgive myself,” he said as a tear welled in his eyes.

                The Grimm mask slid across the floor to Blake’s feet. She picked up the mask and looked into the eyes slits, seeing her own past in them. “You really think you’re the only one?” she asked. “What would you know?” he asked still facing the wall. “That’s what you think,” she said. Mako turned to Blake seeing her holding her bow ribbon in her hand and her cat ears out in the open. All Mako could say was, “You’re a Faunus.” “I had been part of the White Fang since I was old enough to pick up a picket sign, I was at the front of every march, part of every boycott, and watched at every rally before our leader left. Then things turned for the violent, but I just followed blindly. I took part in raids, sabotaged Schnee facilities, stole dust by the train load; but I just couldn’t get it through my head that what we were doing was wrong. It wasn’t until that train raid in the forest of Forever Fall that I realized even my partner Adam had fallen to the new ideals of the White Fang. He was such a kind person until the White Fang changed. He became so cold, so unfeeling. That day he wanted the blow the whole train, crew and all. He didn’t care about who he hurt. I just couldn’t do it anymore. We stood there staring at each other, me on the edge of one car and him on the one behind it. He stood there as I cleaved off the hitch between the cars and I rolled away with the train as he was left behind on the abandoned cars,” She said.

                “Wait you don’t mean Adam Taurus, do you?” Mako asked. “Yeah,” she said as she sat down again. “Yeah that’s him.” “For the love of dust that guy is insane. He would burn all of Remnant to the ground if it would get him what he wanted,” Mako said. “I only wish I had realized that sooner, but at least I did, and now I’ve dedicated myself to becoming a huntress.” “Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation,” Mako muttered. “What?” Blake asked. “That’s what I kept telling myself as I left the White Fang. Of course, I didn’t exactly leave,” Mako said. “What are you talking about?” Blake asked. “After the attack that injured all those people, I had decided to leave but I realized I couldn’t just pack up and go. A month earlier a White Fang foot soldier tried to run away and was caught. No one saw him again but a few days later I found a corpse out in the jungle near our camp. So, I faked my death. I snuck the corpse I had found into camp and into my tent. I had always insisted on making my own explosives, so I had plenty of explosive materials in it. I dressed the body in my clothes and lit a match. My tent exploded as I ran and in the confusion, I jumped into the ocean and swam for it.” “Sounds like a daring escape,” Blake said. “It was cowardly. I ran from my troubles and did my best to cover my tracks. You were the brave one. You looked your partner in the eye and wordlessly said ‘this is wrong’ as you left him behind,” Mako said.  “What’s important is that we left and that we let our pasts drive us not define us,” Blake said. “Says the cat who hides her ears under a bow,” Mako said. “Says the shark hiding his teeth in his collar,” she shot back.

                “Does this conversation have a point?” Mako asked. “I can see your pain. I can see how you hate yourself because of your past. You remind me of when I first came to Beacon. I didn’t tell anyone about what I had done in my past, but then the White Fang started acting up and Weiss started voicing her opinions on them. I just snapped and hinted about my past, and then I just ran for it. If it wasn’t for Sun I probably would have kept running. But then Ruby and the others came looking for me and I realized I didn’t have to run away from my past. I accepted it and moved on and the other girls helped me through it,” Blake said. “A Schnee accepts the fact you used to attack her families company?” Mako asked skeptically. “She had never heard the other side of the conflict. She just saw us as terrorists that wanted to make life difficult for the Schnee Dust Company, but now she understands us a little better. She still doesn’t like the White Fang, but she understands where we’re coming from,” Blake said. “Matt set us up, didn’t he?” Mako said. Blake looked up to the ceiling thinking about it and said, “For the love of dust; he probably did.”

                After his little talk with Blake, Mako started eating with everyone else in the parlor. It took Ruby, Weiss, and Yang a little bit to get used to his teeth, but they did. A day or two later they reached the Tombstone Islands. Ruby was looking through the periscope at the islands but saw no ship wrecks. “I don’t get it, where is all the wreckage?” she asked. The ship pulled around one of the islands and they could see mountains of shipwrecks. They were all over the place under water sticking out above the water, there were even a few scattered on the shore, and one stuck up the side of a small mountain.

                “Woah,” Ruby said looking through the scope. “How are we supposed to find anything in all this?” Weiss asked. “Mako, take Aqua and the girls with you and get your dive gear together. I want you to start scouting the outer edge of the wreckage that’s where the newer wrecks will be,” Shore said. He turned to Aqua, “Aqua, why not help Bubbles into her extended dive pack? She’ll be helpful. Flannery and I will run sonar scans from the Submariner.”

                Aqua, Mako, and the girls changed into their wetsuits. While Mako helped the girls get their scuba gear hooked up, Aqua pulled a strange looking backpack like device with various straps. She sat on the side of the moon pool and slid into the water with the pack and Bubbles swam up to her. “Aqua, what is that thing?” Ruby asked. “It’s kind of like a scuba pack for dolphins. By putting this on Bubbles, it lets her breathe through her blow hole underwater. It allows her to stay underwater for several hours at a time without surfacing,” Aqua said. “It’s very useful when we need her for searching large areas,” Mako added. Aqua strapped the dive pack onto Bubbles buckling it under her belly with the main apparatus on her back on either side of her dorsal fin. They all got into the water and exited the sub. “Alright Ruby go with Weiss, Blake with Yang, and I’ll go with Aqua. Search each of the wrecks to see if you find anything clues,” Mako said. “What are we looking for exactly?” Blake asked. If you find the front end of a ship, check the name on it. I’ve sent a list of the names of all the ships in the fleet to your scrolls,” Mako said. The girls all pulled out their scrolls that were on their dive belts. Luckily, all scrolls were waterproof. “If you can’t find the front of a ship, try looking for crates. Standard protocol on cargo vessels is to have the name of the ship that’s carrying the cargo with the name of the ship. The ship name at the highlighted in red is the ship that had the reactor we are looking for aboard,” he added. “Also try looking for log books or computer drives. On ships these drives tend to be waterproofed, so they can be read when recovered. There could be something in the logs that could tell us about the rest of the ships.”

                The three groups went their separate ways and began checking shipwrecks. It was tedious work but a new experience for the girls of team RWBY, so they found it somewhat enjoyable. Yang and Blake were making their way alongside one of the wrecks when Yang changed the channel on her dive mask’s communications system, so she and Blake could talk privately, “Hey Blake, a few nights ago when you walked out in the middle of dinner, what was that all about?” “I was having a talk with Mako.” “What kind of talk?” Yang asked. “Remember when I was burning the candle at both ends?” Blake said answering the question with another question. It took Yang a second to figure out the meaning, “Oh, that kind of talk.” “After what Matt had told us about him and after seeing what he was like I could tell he was hurting. He reminded me of myself when I was still hiding my past from you guys. But you all helped me get past it, and then you helped me steady my guilty obsession. I just thought I could do that for him,” Blake explained. “And how’d it work out?” Yang asked as she flipped over and swam with her back to the ocean floor. “Well considering he’s eating with us and hasn’t seemed so closed off, I think it worked,” Blake said before she held her arm out to stop her. “What is it?” Yang asked as she flipped back over. Blake pulled out her scroll looking at the name on the hull of a sunken ship. The hull was broken off half way through the name however; all that could be read was “Hori…” “See if you can find a crate inside,” Blake said as she and Yang swam into the wreck turning on the lights on their masks.

                “Blake over here,” Yang called her over to a crate. On it read “Horizon.” Blake checked her scroll. A little way down the list of ships was the Horizon. “Blake switched back to an open channel. “hey guys I think we found one of the ships, the Horizon,” she said. Mako’s voice crackled over the other end, “Alright, start following the length of the ship and try to find the bridge; that’s where the computer drives or logs will be. I’ll meet you there. Everyone else, keep looking.” Blake and Yang swam through the remains of the old ship surrounded by old crates half buried in the sand and rusted out components. Suddenly Yang thought she saw something moving in the shadows, “What was that?!” “It’s probably just a fish, come on,” Blake said.

                They made their way to the bridge. The control panels were covered in the beginning of coral growth blocking them from seeing anything below it. “Mako, where exactly would the log books or computer drives be?” Blake asked over the com. “The computer drives should be under the communications stations. Look for a microphone or headset of some sort,” Mako said. Blake found a console with a headset floating in the water above it but wired to it. Blake drew her cleave and used it to chip off the coral growth over the cabinet below it. As she did that, Yang continued to look around. She watched a group of small fish go by when she saw something glowing in a dark hallway at the back of the bridge. Yang’s curiosity got the better of her and she bobbed towards the light. “Here we go,” Blake said as she pulled the computer drive out from the newly opened cabinet. She then looked towards Yang and the light attracting her, but from her angle she could see a long slender tentacle like appendage attached to it. Yang reached out to touch the light. “Yang no!” Blake yelled.

                Yang flinched back, and an aquatic Grimm shaped like an angler fish about three feet long, with a white skull like head, big sharp teeth, huge red eyes, and a long tentacle like appendage extending from its head with a glowing yellow tip Yang was about to touch, leapt from the shadows to chomp down on her outstretched arm. Just then, Mako came crashing through one of the bridge’s front window throwing a punch and launching out one of his shark head knuckles. The shark head bit down on the Grimm and he reeled it in towards him. As the Grimm reached him he punched down on its head with a shot from his gun for extra power and the Grimm slammed into the deck below breaking through to the next level before disintegrating. “What was that?” Blake asked. “It’s called a Dark Angler. It’s an aquatic Grimm that attracts victims in with its glowing tentacle, but a soon as you touch it, it shocks you stunning you and then it kills you,” he explained. “Did you get the computer drive?” he asked. “Yeah, I got it,” Blake said holding it up. Mako took the device and strapped it to his lower back before looking out the window. “Oh, chum buckets,” he cursed as he saw more aquatic Grimm come out of hiding in some of the wrecks. He grabbed the two girls and pulled them down before the Grimm could see them.

                “Mako what are those?” Yang asked in a whisper. Mako took a quick look at the Grimm out in the water. “We’ll have to give you a crash course in aquatic Grimm later. For now, I’ll give you the short version. There are more Dark Anglers out there. Remember like with most Grimm, the white bone like parts are like armor so aim for the black parts. They are pretty simple to deal with. They will try to ram you or bite you with their huge teeth, but the most important thing is to stay away from the glowing part of the tentacle on their heads. Touch that and it will shock you leaving you dazed long enough for them to get you,” he explained. He took another look and saw some pufferfish like Grimm. “The puffers like ones; be careful of.” They were smaller Grimm, no bigger than a basketball with a white heads and bodies covered in spines. “They aren’t very big,” Blake said taking a quick look. “That’s how they get you, the can inflate themselves to five times the size in a split second. They’ll try to inflate when you get close and spike you or fire their spines out in all directions. He took one last look to see the last kind of Grimm. They were long eel like creatures with white heads and black bodies. “And it looks like the last type of Grimm are Sea Lurkers. They will try to bite you or whip you with their powerful tails but most importantly don’t touch them with your bare skin. Otherwise it with shock and stun you and they will finish you off.” “So, what do we do?” Yang asked. “The Submariner is about three hundred meters past them. If we can make it to the sub, we can get back up,” Mako said. Blake drew her katana from its cleaver scabbard and Yang unpacked her gauntlets. “On your mark,” Yang said to Mako.

                “Alright whatever you do, don’t stop moving. Max out your jets and fire and slash at will, but make sure you stay on course. If you stop, they’ll swarm you. I’ll go first, Yang follow and cover our sides, top, and bottom, and Blake cover the rear.” Mako’s com cracked to life, “Shore we got a school of Grimm between us and the sub.” “We can see,” Shore said as he looked at the sonar console. “Flannery, load a swarm burst torpedo and set detonation for a hundred meters,” Shore ordered as he turned the torpedo room.

                “Alright here we go,” Mako said. He flipped of resting against the back wall of the bridge and pushed off with great force, flying out of the hole he came in through firing in all directions in front of him. Yang followed him out firing outward as she spun, and Blake came out shooting anything that followed behind them. The rest of the Grimm we dazed for a minute as the two girls maxed out their jets and Mako swam for his life. They cleared the other side of the school of Grimm and Mako yelled into his com, “Fire!” Flannery had just pushed a torpedo into the tube sealing it and pressed the firing button. The torpedo rocketed out of the nose of the submarine towards the Grimm. Mako had to grab the girls pulling them out of the way of the large weapon’s path as it sailed passed them. As the torpedo reached the school of Grimm Small ports opened across its body. As it entered the school small dart like flechettes began firing out in all directions taking out Grimm. “Cool,” Yang said. “Yeah but it’s a pain to recover the reusable main torpedo,” Mako said. Mako then realized he was holding the girls close to his chest and let them go in embarrassment.

                However, not all the Grimm had been eliminated and they started swimming towards Mako and the two girls. “Look sharp here come the stragglers,” Mako said as he swam towards the approaching monsters. He punched a Sea Lurker followed by blasting a Spine Mine. Another spine mine came up behind him and was about to inflate but he sensed it with his semblance. He spun around holding his forearms crossed in front of him and blocked the puffer fish Grimm as it inflated to five times its size in a fraction of a second and popping out its spines. Mako was knocked back a bit before he retaliated using one of his jaws to grab hold of the Grimm before triggering the jets in the other gauntlet and punched strait through the Grimm, causing it to evaporate. A Dark Angler charged at him with its shocking tentacle extended, but Mako ducked under it and used the jaws on one of his gauntlets to grab the tentacle to control its movements. He grabbed onto the Grimm’s tail with the other jaw and he sunk his actual teeth into the Grimm tearing it apart with his shark’s teeth.

                “Ew,” Yang groaned at the sight of someone actually biting into a Grimm, but she had her own problems. She used the jet in her right fin to quickly blow herself up at an angle before a Sea Lurker could ram her followed by using a side thruster in her pack to jet out of the way of another and punch it as it past. She used her fin jets to flip herself over, a Spine Mine blasting it before it could inflate. She spun around and punched a line of charging anglers one by one as they came at her.

                Another Sea Lurker was about to whip Yang with her tail behind her, but Blake jetted up and ran the monster through the eye. She swung her katana up tearing through the eye socket and coming down on the other side of her slashing the tentacle off a Dark Angler. She then converted the sword to its pistol form and fired into the Dark Angler’s mouth killing it. Following this she attached her ribbon to the trigger mechanism and threw it out stabbing into a Spine Mine before the ribbon went taught pulling the jet trigger and spun her around in a circle slashing through several more Grimm. She pulled the weapon back catching it and converted it back to its katana form. She held out her katana and cleaver with the blades pointed in opposite directions and pulled the jet triggers causing her to spin like a top chopping up a set of charging Grimm.

                Blake moved done towards to sandy sea floor to catch her breath, when suddenly and crab claw reached up from beneath the sand, and she screamed. Mako looked around to see her being grabbed by a large crab like Grimm. “Cancer Claw!” he yelled out. The suddenly Bubbles showed up out of nowhere and rammed her head into the Crab like Grimm distracting it enough to loosen its grip enough for Blake to slip free. Then Aqua came barreling out of a trench of scrap at high speed firing at the Cancer Claw. However, the crab like Grimm’s top was heavily armored with white bone like plating that her bullets couldn’t pierce. “Mako, crab cracker!” she called out over the comm. Mako got the idea and quickly came to rest on a rock formation. He launched out his shark jaws that bit down on the far side of the Cancer Claw to him. He braced himself against the rocks and pulled lifting the side of the crab Grimm up like a lever and exposing its unarmored black underbelly. Aqua came around for another pass and stabbed one of her blades deep into the monster’s belly killing it. Bubbles swam up to Aqua who petted her head saying, “Good girl.”

                Then suddenly a large shadow formed over the sea floor. She looked up to see a swordfish like Grimm with a black body white head and sharp sword nose. “Sea Sworder!” she called out to identify the large Grimm to the others. The large swordfish Grimm charged at Yang who was busy with other Grimm and didn’t notice. Weiss then jetted out of nowhere and parried the Sea Sworder’s nose to the side before slashing along its body wounding it. The Grimm came back around trying to slash her, but she blocked it and began fencing with the sword nosed Grimm. They fought back and forth for a minute before Weiss spun the drum of dust vials and the blade became coated in ice dust. On her next parry the ice dust caused ice crystals to erupt along the Grimm’s sword like nose and making it float up. Weiss jetted back a bit only to stab forward at the Grimm’s exposed belly using the jets in her rapier for added force and ran the monster through. She swung the rapier down to her side proud of her victory when Mako tackled her out of the way as something big and black passed by. “What was that for?!” she demanded to know then she saw the abrasive wounds on his back. “Rip Jaw,” he said pointing.

                She looked to see a huge shark shaped Grimm with a white armored head and a huge mouth of razor sharp teeth. “What happened to your back?” Weiss asked. “Rip Jaws look smooth, but they have highly abrasive skin,” he said as he winced. “It’s mine,” Ruby said as she rode her scythe like a witch’s broom over the top of a shipwreck into view. As she got close to the monster shark she twisted the scythe, so the blade was out to the side and made a pass close to the side of the Rip Jaw cutting a slash in the side. She spun the scythe around, so the jets faced the direction she was going and triggered them to slow her down. She then jetted back up towards the Rip jaw with the scythe jets aimed back. As she got close the Shark Grimm tried to chomp down on her, but she used her side jet to jet out of the way and triggered the scythe’s jets to slash around in circles cutting off its dorsal fin. Without its dorsal fin, the Rip Jaw couldn’t control its movements correctly and it just flailed about. Ruby brought her scythe around compacting it to its rifle form and shot the beast through the eye killing it.

                More Grimm began to slither out of the wrecks and they realized they were terribly out numbered. “We got to get out of here,” Mako said as he winced in pain. “Bubbles,” Aqua called to the dolphin that swam over to her. “Carry Mako back to the sub.” The dolphin nodded its head and swam over to Mako who was being held up by Weiss. Bubbles grabbed onto a woven handle on the back of Mako’s wetsuit below his collar with her mouth and swam towards the submarine. “Let’s go,” Aqua said to the girls. They entered the moon pool of the sub and closed the hatch below. Flannery was waiting for them to help as Shore moved the sub away from the graveyard of ships and away from the Grimm.

                Aqua grabbed Mako’s breathing collar and buckled it on before they pulled him out of the water. “Is he going to be alright?” Weiss asked, feeling slightly guilty since he was hurt saving her. Flannery flipped him over, so they could see the scraped up dorsal fin. “He’ll be fine, we’ve all had our fair share of scrapes from the sandpaper skin of a Rip Jaw,” Flannery said. “Didn’t Port already give his lesson on aquatic Grimm yet?” Aqua asked as she sat on the side of the moon pool ringing out her hair.  “Who can tell? He starts teaching for the first maybe ten minutes of class and then something reminds him of one of his stories and the rest of the class is wasted,” Blake said as she shook of the water like a wet cat. “Sounds like we’re going to have to give you a crash course,” Shore said as he came in. “Did we lose them?” Aqua asked. “Yeah I guess we weren’t worth chasing for them. I brought us around and dropped anchors on the far side of one of the islands,” he said. “How you feeling Sharky?” he asked Mako. “Better than you’ll be if you call me that again,” Mako said as he sat up. He groaned as he retracted his fins into his body. “Alright let’s get the gear cleaned,” Mako said as he pulled out of fresh water hose and started hosing of his gauntlets. “And then after dinner I going to give you girls a crash course in the kinds of aquatic Grimm we’ll be running into down here,” he said to the girls.

                After dinner Mako sat the girls down in front of the TV and brought out a large book on a podium. “Alright where to start,” he said to himself as he put on a pair of coke bottle glasses that had to be at least half an inch thick and opened the big book. The girls all stifled laughs. “What,” he asked looking up and revealing his greatly magnified eyes that filled the entirety of the lenses. The girls burst into laughter. Mako realized what was so funny and just leaned on the podium saying, “Yeah, yeah get it all out now,” in a partially annoyed tone. The girls started to calm down a bit. “Sorry Mako but what’s with the glasses?” Ruby said trying to calm down. “Yeah, I mean I thought Becky had some thick glasses, but those things are ridiculous,” Yang added. “What the heck is you vision twenty/two million?” Weiss asked jokingly. “That depends on the environment,” he said cryptically. “What does that mean?” she asked having calmed down. He handed her the glasses and gestured her to try them on. “I feel like I have my eyes open under water,” Weiss said. “Exactly, my eyes were meant to function underwater. Underwater I have perfect vision. On land it’s about twenty/one hundred,” he said taking back the glasses. “How do you function?” Blake asked. “I can still see but I don’t get much detail. I still have my depth prospection and my semblance makes up for it in most instances, but I still have difficulty reading. These glasses simulate my eyes being underwater, so my vision is better for reading,” He explained.

                “Now then let’s begin,” he said flipping through the large book. “We’ll start with the Grimm that scraped me up today,” he said felling his back. He pressed a button on a remote and the TV displayed a 3D image of a Rip Jaw Grimm. “The Rip Jaw can be one of the most dangerous Grimm in the sea. Like a normal shark they’re favorite method of attack is biting, and if one manages to sink its teeth into you, you’re a goner. In addition, they can ram you with their heads, smack you with their tails or use what most fast aquatic Grimm have, razor sharp fins for slashing as they make passes. I addition, Rip Jaws have one more unique feature, abrasive skin. The black portions of the body look smooth but it’s more like razor sharp sand paper. Do yourselves a favor and never touch one with your bare skin.”

                He switched to the next slide with images of a Sea Sworder. “The Sea Sworder tends to be a bit smarter than most Grimm. It’s one of the few Grimm that you could actually get into a fencing match with. They will usually try to slash and stab at you but the still have razor fins for if they miss when charging you. They can bite but the length of their noses makes it difficult. Their skin is scaly but not abrasive like a Rip Jaw, so you can touch them when fighting.

                Next was the Cancer Claw. “The Cancer Claw is the tank of Aquatic Grimm. They tend to hide in the sand and attack without warning. The major problem is their backs and claws are incredibly well armored and it’s hard to penetrate with few gaps. The best way to take it out is to strike their underbellies where the armor is practically nonexistent. How you get there is up to you. Just stay out of the way of their claws. They’ll try to punch and slash you with them or grab you with them, and never let them get their claw around you. Blake was luck that one today didn’t finish the job. Normally it would have crushed her leg,” he said. Blake rubbed her leg the Grimm had grabbed her by, thankful it was still there.

                The next Grimm looked like a lobster with big claws and extensive white armoring. “This is a Craw Claw. STAY AWAY!” he said emphasizing not to go near one. “Why’s that?” Ruby asked. “Because these things are the size of a bus and an average huntsman or huntress can’t really do much to them,” he said. “So how do we deal with one? Just hide until it leaves?” Yang asked. “Don’t worry, we have a deterrent for them,” he said cryptically.

                Next was the Dark Angler. “Dark Anglers are tricky little things. They try to lure people in with the calming light on the end of the tentacle they have on their heads. But when you touch the light, it shocks you leaving you disabled long enough for it the strike. If you see a strange light, blast it. They will also ram you or bite you with their huge teeth.”

                “Next is the Demon Ray,” he said switching to a Grimm that looked like devil ray with white armor along the front edge of its body, a wide wing like body, and two skewer like protrusions on the front of its head. “These things will strike from either above or below. They tend to glide along the bottom but what’s really unique about them is they have the ability to fly out of the water for a limited amount of time. They will either ram you with their forward skewers or cut you with their razor-sharp fins for close combat, but their main attack is throwing stingers at you. They’re like small harpoons and can only be thrown one at a time with its tail. Plus, it has a shot count, after five shots it takes a minute or two for them to generate new stingers. That will be your best time to strike.”

                After that was the Sea Lurker. “Never touch these things with your body. Their entire bodies are rigged to shock you if you do. They will bite our try to whip you with their strong tails. Most of important thing to remember is to not let your guard down around them. They will appear to move slowly at first, but they are capable of striking with lightning reflexes.”

                “Lastly, we have the Spine Mine. They don’t look threatening at first since they look small, but these things are a dangerous as an IED. When you get close enough, they will inflate to five times the size in a fraction of a second and their spikes stick out. They can also launch their spikes out in all directions. It will take them a minute to regrow the spikes after launching,” He said finishing.

                He closed the book and took of his glasses. “Most importantly, remember that you are fighting in a three-dimensional environment. Grimm can come at you from any direction so watch your surroundings.”

                “I GOT IT!” they heard Flannery yell out from all the way in the engine room. She then came running in carrying the computer drive Blake and Yang found, but it was cracked open with various wires sticking out. “I cracked it,” she said. Everyone convened on the bridge and Flannery wired the computer drive into the map console opening the semi-corrupted data. “It was a little water logged but I was able to pull out a few of the newest logs,” she said as she opened a set of files. Mako put his glasses back on to read the material and Shore read through the logs. “Let’s see, calm seas for a few days. Then the storm took a sharp turn and struck the fleet. After that the flotilla began to lose formation. Some of the ships started to be washed into each other which sunk some of them, some capsized, others struck rocks. Oh well this is interesting,” Shore said. “What’s that?” Ruby asked leaning over the map table to see even though it was upside down from that angle. “It appears the command ship was swept up in a water spout,” he said. ‘What’s a water spout?” she asked. “It’s when a tornado touches down over water. It sucks up water making it even more dangerous,” Flannery said. “It’s like a big twisty straw,” Aqua said trying to help in her own ditsy way. “Not exactly,” Mako said. “Anyway, it says that the command ship was seen being suck up whole by the water spout and carried in the direction of these islands by the crew of this ship before they abandon ship,” Shore said. “That’s our golden ticket. If we can find the command ship, we find the reactor,” Flannery said. “So that’s the ship that has the reactor on it?” Blake asked. “No but it will point us to it,” Mako said. “Most large groups of cargo vessels traveling together have a single ship selected as the command ship. This ship does all the navigation for the flotilla and keeps track of its formation. But most importantly, the command ship has the central command receiver,” Flannery said. “What does that do?” Yang asked. “It’s a device that is used to communicate orders to the flotilla as well as track the movements of the other ships. If we can get it, Flannery can jury-rig it to detect the exact location of the ship we want,” Shore said. “So where is it?” Ruby asked. Shore pulled down the periscope and looked around a bit. “Ship ahoy,” he said gesturing for them to look. Ruby pulled the scope a little lower to her eyes and looked through to see a ship wreck sitting half way up the mountain of one of the islands.

                The next day they moved the sub to the island the ship was sitting on, but they anchored themselves on the far side of the island for the wreck and surfaced. “Hey Shore, why do we have to go ashore on the far side of island? Why not land closer?” Weiss asked. “Because it’s impossible to reach the shore safely over there with all the shipwrecks, we’ll have to make land fall on this side of the island and make our way there,” he said. Once they surfaced, they opened the back hatch of the sub revealing the jeeps and other smaller vehicles. Mako lifted the small boat out of the hold while Flannery and Shore attached some floats to the jeeps and loaded some equipment into the cargo jeep. Mako lifted the jeeps out of the hold and their floats inflated under them as he lowered them to the water. They used the boat to tow the jeeps ashore where they detached the floats.

                They left the boat tied to the shore and drove into the jungle. Shore and Aqua were in the passenger jeep with the RWBY girls while Flannery and Mako took the cargo jeep. It was a rough ride through the jungle. There were no actual roads, only rough paths forged by the migrations of animals over the years. The jeeps bounced over each bump, the shock absorbers barely having any effect. By the time they had reached the ship, team RWBY had to take a few minutes to stop shaking. “Alright, let’s see what’s left,” Shore said as he locked the emergency brake and jumped out of his jeep followed by the others. They walked up to the side of the huge freight ship. “It’s in surprisingly good shape considering it was thrown into the side of a mountain,” Weiss said looking the ship over. She was right; the ship seemed to still be in one piece from where they were standing with only a few holes here and there, and about a third of the back end of the ship hanging over the edge of a cliff. “So how do we get in?” Yang asked scratching her head.

                Flannery pulled out her shotgun and pulled her goggles over her eyes. She pumped her shotgun’s pump forward before pulling it back farther than normal and a blowtorch nozzle extended out and ignited. Flannery turned a nob on the side and the torches flame refined into a focused cutting flame. “You may want to cover your eyes,” Flannery told the members of team RWBY as Shore, Aqua, and Mako shielded their eyes whit their hand. Flannery put the torch flame to the hull of the ship and started cutting an opening, but it was slow going. She backed off her cutting and raised her goggles for a second to say, “This may take a while. The hull is made of a much stronger metal than I expected, plus I don’t know how many layers the hull might have.” “Can we blast it?” Yang asked. “Bad idea, we have no clue just how structurally sound the ship actually is at the moment. She may look stable from out here, but inside the main structuring ribs and braces could be mangled and buckled and the metals could be compromised for fires that may have happened when the ship slammed into the mountain. For all we know, the other side of the ship was torn away on impact and the inside is exposed to the rock face. If we blast our way in, the shockwave could make the whole ship fall apart,” Flannery said. “Slow and steady Flannery; cut a hole to go in on foot for now. We’ll cut a bigger one to get the generator out later,” Shore said. “I’m on it,” she said as she pulled her goggles down and returned to her cutting.

                Flannery finished cutting an opening while Shore passed out headlamps. Shore pulled out his anchors connecting them together and converting them into a harpoon rifle. “Alright I’ll take Flannery, Ruby, and Weiss with me and we’ll work our way towards the back of the ship. Mako take Aqua, Blake, and Yang and Make your way towards the front,” Shore said. “Got it; be careful, we have no idea what may be in here,” Mako said back as he converted his bracers into their full gauntlet form. Everyone followed suit drawing and unpacking their weapons and cautiously made their way into the ship wreck, each group going their separate ways.

                Shore, Flannery, Ruby, and Weiss cautiously crept through the dark cargo hold. It was full of cargo containers that were strewn about, many of them crushed and damaged from the rough ride they would have had when the ship was suck up in the water spout and slammed into the side of a mountain. “This is spooky,” Ruby said. Suddenly Weiss heard something bump next to her. Out of reflex she slashed the crate next to her in half and a small lizard scurried out and ran away. “Weiss!” Shore scolded trying to keep his voice down as he put his hand on her wrist that held her rapier and gently lowered its which calmed her a bit. “Relax and try not to make any noise. This time it was just a lizard, but for all we know there’s a whole pack of Grimm hiding in here for you to attract,” Shore said. “Sorry,” she said. “Just be careful,” Shore said as they continued on, not noticing the pair of evil eyes following them from the shadows.

                Eventually they made their way to the bridge without incident. “Alright, let’s see if anything’s still kicking in here,” Flannery said as she started trying to get the computers going. “Woah,” Ruby said as she looked out of the window over the main body of the ship and saw the entire side along the mountain side was gone. “Got it,” Flannery said as she got a cracked monitor to start up. “Anything good?” Weiss asked. “Found the tracking codes… Oh well this looks important,” Flannery said. “What is it?” Shore asked. “It appears the reactor was being transported in two parts, the stabilizer structure and the main core, and it appears the core is the only thing on the ship that we were told has the reactor on it is only carrying the core,” Flannery said. “Then where is the stabilizer structure?” Weiss asked. “Ah…” Flannery said as she flipped through files. “Here.” “Here? On this ship?” Shore questioned. “Section 2A towards the front of the ship, crate number 2868,” Flannery confirmed. Shore opened his scroll and called Mako. “Mako, Mako I can barely hear you. Yeah, we found out part of the reactor is on this ship in your direction, crate number 2868. Try to find it.” “Ah guys,” Ruby said pointing out the window towards the deck. The other three looked out onto the deck to see a hoard of Grimm crawling out of holes in the mountain side and enter the ship through holes in the deck. “Mako, you have Grimm headed your way. We’re on our way to you just hold out,” Shore said as he hung up and turned to the others. “Let’s move.”

                Just as Shore hung up, a Beowulf tried to pounce on Mako, but he punched it right in the face, killing it. “Chomp chomp,” he said as he launched out his other gauntlet’s shark head and it killed another Grimm.

                Shore, Flannery, Ruby, and Weiss practically jumped down the stairs into the hold to find t swarming with Grimm. “Alright, has Matt taught you about a hoard sprint?” Shore asked. “He’s mentioned it but never gave the full lesson,” Weiss said. “Alright Ruby and Weiss take the front, don’t worry about fully killing them, just get them out of the way. I got the top and sides, and Flannery cover the rear. Stay close and focus on moving forward, our mission is to reach the others not exterminating the Grimm, yet,” Shore said. They all nodded and took their positions. The Grimm noticed them and took a second to register them as targets. “Go,” Shore said in a calm not loud voice and they all broke into a sprint.

                As soon as they reached the first row of Grimm, Ruby made a wide swing cleaving the whole row in half. Weiss followed up with a glyph that froze another group of Beowolves and then shattered them with a stab of her rapier. Another Beowolf leaped off a shipping container to strike them but Shore threw out one of his anchors at it, stabbing through the monster’s body. As the creature disintegrated he pulled back the anchor as he threw out the other to do the same to another pouncing Grimm. He pulled the anchor back before he threw them both up and they hooked onto one of the support bars along the ceiling of the cargo hold. He quickly condensed and released and air pocket in a fan like component of the spool on his back hips. The sudden burst of air on the fan caused the spool to wind the chains pulling him up into the air. The anchors unhooked and began to reel in. Shore used another pair of expanding air pockets to make himself spin with his anchors out as they slashed through more Grimm and landed back with the group. He reeled in his anchors catching them and converted them to their pistol forms and fired on various Grimm. Flannery was blasting any Grimm that followed the charging group left and right with wide spread shotgun shells. Then a larger death stalker advanced through the group. “We got a stalker!” she called to the others. Shore looked back for a split second to see the new threat. “Barnacles,” he cursed under his breath but then he saw a crate coming up in front of them with a red dust crystal on it, fire dust. “Flannery on your left!” Shore called back to her. “Flannery saw the crate and got the idea. She converted her shotgun to its hammer form and smacked the crate sending it flying at the death stalker. She quickly converted the hammer back to its shotgun form and fired at the crate as it hit the death stalker and it exploded killing the beast. However, this cause a chain reaction igniting fire dust in other crates they didn’t see, and explosions started going off throughout the cargo hold followed by a quickly advancing wall of fire coming after them. “Dust,” Flannery squeaked. They all stopped fighting and just ran for their lives towards the hatch to the front cargo hold where Mako and the others were. “We’re not gonna make it!” Weiss yelled. Then Shore discharged a huge pocket of compressed air that not only slowed the advance of the flames a bit but sent the four of them flying through the hatch, slamming it shut behind them as the flames struck the metal wall.

                 They all flew into a huge pile of hay used to protect things in crates. “Ugh,” Weiss said as she was the first to surface from the pile and shook the hay out of her hair. Ruby surfaced next, her hood had been blown up onto her head and it was full of hay. “Anybody get the license plate on that explosion?” she asked sarcastically before falling back in the hay relaxing. Shore popped up next spitting out a few pieces of hay that had gotten in his mouth followed by Flannery. “Well that was a mess,” Flannery said. “No kidding,” Yang said as she, Blake, Mako, and Aqua walked up. “Wait where are all the Grimm in here?” Shore asked as he looked around. Mako just blew on the barrel of one of his gauntlets. “Oh,” Shore said understanding his meaning. “Ah guys,” Aqua said patting her head. The four in the hay each checked their heads. Ruby realized her hood full of hay and started clearing it out and Weiss started picking hay from her own hair. Shore and Flannery each touched their heads to see what Aqua meant and realized their hats were gone. Half panicking, they dove into the hay searching frantically for their hats before surfacing, each wearing the others hat full of hay. Shore’s was too big and sunk low on Flannery’s head while hers was small on him. “Well this isn’t right,” Flannery said before they traded hats.

                “Anyway, did you find the stabilizer structure?” Shore asked the others. “Yeah, it’s over here,” Mako said pointing behind him. They walked over to the container containing the stabilizer structure. The container had a large lock on it which Flannery smashed off with the butt of her shotgun and opened the container. “How does it look?” Mako asked. Flannery looked over the large apparatus. “Looks intact,” she said. “What exactly is this thing for?” Blake asked. “The stabilizer structure is what contains and moderates the reaction of the main core. Without this thing a dust reactor is just a big bomb,” Flannery said. “Well let’s get this thing out of here,” Mako said. Mako and Shore retrieved the jeeps while Flannery started cutting a large opening in the hull of the ship large enough for one of the jeeps to fit through, and Aqua and the girls started making a path through the crates for the jeeps. Flannery finished cutting and a slab of the hull fell forward onto the ground. Mako drove the cargo jeep in and backed it up to the container with the stabilizer unit. They closed the container and Flannery used her semblance to lighten the container to the point they could lift it by hand. They loaded the container into the back of the cargo jeep and strapped it down. Mako looked up and saw the sun was starting to set. “We should get going. It’s getting dark and I don’t want to risk spending the night out here,” he said. “He’s right, no telling what that blast earlier may have attracted. They all loaded up into the jeeps and pulled out of the hole they hand cut in the ship when they heard a load creaking and hit the brakes. The creaking turned to crunching and sheering and they looked to see the back end of the ship that was hanging off the edge of the cliff tearing off and falling followed by a loud crash. Everyone just looked forward with wide eyes and drove into the jungle without a word.

                They returned to the beach and inflated the floats for the jeeps. After towing them back to the Submariner, Mako started loading them with the crane as the girls of team RWBY sat on the deck watching the sun set over the ocean. “A beautiful sight, wouldn’t you say?” Shore said having appeared next to them with a telescope and tripod under his arm. “What’s that for?” Ruby asked. “Well we can’t set a course till we know where we’re going, and we can’t know where we’re going until Flannery can get her track working. So…” Shore said as he started setting up the telescope. The sun hand finally fully set, and the shattered moon began to rise as the stars one by one twinkled into existence. He aimed the scope at the moon as he began to focus it. “Always beautiful,” he said as he looked at the broken celestial body. He stepped aside and gestured for one of the girls to take a look. One by one they looked through the old telescope at the broken moon. “It’s so white,” Blake said as she looked through the scope. “Good thing you’re a cat and not a wolf,” Yang joked. Crickets were all she got for that bad pun. “This thing’s some antique,” Weiss said as she looked at the ornately designed telescope. It had a shiny well taken care of brass body with no sign of aging or patina on a nice black wooden tripod with matching brass hardware. Across its body it had complex designs etched into it of ships on the seas and starry skies.

                “It’s an heirloom of sorts. It belonged to my great, great, great grandfather who was a great cartographer. They say he traveled the Remnant by sea and made the first accurate map of all of Remnant. He took this scope with him on his journey and looked through it every night, dreaming of his greatest goal that he knew he’d never reach,” Shore said. “What was that?” Blake asked looking up from the eye piece. Shore looked up to the shattered moon. “How do you think it happened?” he asked. The girls were confused. “The moon, how do you think it shattered? Some say it was a prison that held in the darkest darkness in existence and that one day it broke free, shattering the moon and escaping to Remnant in the form of the Grimm. Others say it’s a representation of humanity and as we are divided more and more its body shatters more and more. All I know is one day the name Nemo will go down in history over and over for the greatest explorative discoveries out there, and one day a Nemo will set foot on the moon,” he said. He took a deep breath. “Well at least we can dream,” he said accepting he would probably never be the Nemo to do it. “Come on guys, dinner’s ready!” Aqua called down from the conning tower.

* * *

 

                The next morning a scream echoed loudly through the sub, “I got it!” Aqua and the members of team RWBY were all scared out of bed, simultaneously hitting their heads on the ceiling of their bunks before the five of them fell out into a pile. “Ugh, what was that?” Ruby groaned. “Where’s Flannery?” Aqua asked wondering where their sixth roommate was. She was currently wearing her sleepwear like the other girls, consisting of white tank top, blue and green boxers and an open purple short sleeve button up pajama top. “She was here when we went to bed last night,” Blake said. The five of them popped their heads out the door to look down the hall to see where the yelling was coming from. Shore and Mako popped their heads out of the boys’ room as well. Shore was wearing a set of dark blue pajamas with white trim and Mako was just wearing a pair of black gym shorts and his breathing collar his well-toned chest bare. “What was that?” Mako asked.

                They followed the sound of the yelling to the engine room where they found Flannery working on the tracking device. She had apparently woken up in the middle of the night to work on the device since. She was still in her pajamas, a pair of blue sweat pants and an oversized red and white jersey. Her hair was a mess and she appeared to be vibrating most likely do to all the coffee she had consumed during the night as evident from all the empty coffee cups and a garbage can full of used coffee grounds and filters next to a percolating coffee pot. “Flannery, what’s going on?” Weiss asked. “Oh hey guys. Yesterday I was having a problem fixing the tracking receiver and then I woke up in the middle of the night and realized what my problem was, so I just went straight to work and ta da,” she said in a hyperactive tone similar to Becky Oobleck as she held up a large device of cobbled together circuits, wires, and parts. It looked like a piece of junk. “Um Flannery, how much coffee have you had?” Shore asked. “Oh, I don’t know maybe five…” “Cups?” Weiss asked. “Pots,” Flannery said before reaching for the coffee pot. “Oh no you’ve had enough,” Shore said as he caught her hand before she could grab the pot’s handle. “Oh, come on Shore I feel fine, I feel like I could keep working for another…” Flannery fell asleep right then and there from a sudden caffeine crash. “Second,” Mako said finishing her sentence. “Someone want to take her back to bed?” he asked. Yang volunteered, slinging Flannery’s arm over her shoulders while Aqua came up under the other and they carried her back to the girls’ room. “So, should we assume this thing is just a pile of junk she threw together in a caffeine bender?” Weiss asked examining the crude device. “No, it will work. Flannery’s done this before and every time, whatever she built does exactly what it was supposed to,” Shore said taking a closer look at the ridiculous device.

                After Flannery finally got some sleep, she met the others on the bridge with her device. “So how does this thing work?” Aqua asked gesturing to the device. Flannery wired the device into the navigation table. It buzzed and whirled as it started up and the screen on the navigation table began to jump around on the map of Remnant before marking a point on it. “Told you it would work,” Shore said before he started plotting a course. “Alright by the look of this, oh dear,” he said. “What?” Ruby asked. “Well the tracking data is accurate to about twenty square miles at least from here, as we get closer it will become more accurate,” Shore said. “So, what’s the problem?” Ruby asked. “You see this here?” he said pointing out a long line on the map. “That is the Black Cut Trench, one of the deepest trenches in Remnant. Let’s pray the ship didn’t end up down there, otherwise we’ll never reach it. There’s no sub capable of reaching the bottom,” Shore said. “Oh boy,” Ruby said.

* * *

 

                They set course for the Black Cut Trench. They spent the trip doing various things to pass the time. One afternoon during the journey Aqua called everyone for lunch. “lunch time everybody,” she called out from the kitchen. Ruby was playing catch with Bubbles who was bobbing in the pool in the parlor. Ruby would toss a small beach ball and the dolphin would bump it back with her beak. She looked up from their game just in time for the ball to hit her on the head. She looked back to the aquatic mammal with a half annoyed half amused look as the dolphin laughed. Blake looked up from her book while Weiss, Shore came downstairs, and Flannery and Yang came in from the back end of the sub.

                They all sat down to eat when Mako came in. He had a magnifier headset and had a piece of sandpaper wedged in the band. He quickly grabbed his plate and left again. “Oh, come on, I thought he understood we aren’t disturbed by his teeth,” Blake said. “No, that’s not it. I think he’s working on his hobby,” Flannery said as she took another bite of her food. “What hobby?” Ruby asked with a mouth full of food. “Ruby, chew your food,” Weiss scolded. Shore stood up and picked up and picked up some kind of horn on a stand on the end table next to the couch in front of one of the windows. He brought it over and set it on the table. It was covered in highly detailed engravings of the Submariner in the deep sea. “Oh scrimshaw, one of my father’s associates collects these,” Weiss said picking it up for a better look. “What’s scrimshaw?” Ruby asked. “It’s an old art form started by sailors and whalers,” Shore said. “So, what he collects them?” Blake asked. “No, he makes them himself. Mako made that piece when we first got the Submariner,” Shore said. “Woah, he made something this detailed?” Weiss asked in disbelief. “Yeah he’s been practicing for years. You can find him in his workshop in the back of the salvage bay,” Shore said.

                After eating the girls went down to the salvage bay. It was dark, but they could see a light coming through a half open door on the far end of the room and the high-pitched sound of a tiny drill. They peaked in to see the room lined with shelves with various scrimshaw pieces and Mako sitting at a workbench with a small dental drill working on a piece. Mako noticed a flicker of shadows and said, “Come in girls.” “Hey Mako, what’re you working on?” Ruby asked. He flipped up his magnifier headset and blew stray ivory off the piece he was working on, a tusk from a wild boar. “Oh, just documenting a memory,” he said as he pulled out some ink and a sponge. He dipped it in the ink and rubbed it over the tusk before wiping it off making the engraving standout against the rest of the tusk. After he cleaned it off the girls could see a design of the shipwreck from the mountainside breaking apart as they left. “Cool,” Yang said. “Yeah, I chronicle all our adventures through these pieces,” He said gesturing to the pieces on the wall. “This one documents our graduation,” he said pointing to a piece of the members of team SPAT at their graduation. “This one was our first mission,” he said pointing at another piece of the four of them diving a wreck. “Oh, this one is one of my favorites. This was when we sunk that fleet of White Fang raiding boats,” he said pointing to a walrus tusk with an image of several small boats exploding. “What exactly do you carve this stuff on?” Weiss asked. “It depends on where we are and what I can get as materials. I can usually get walrus tusk in Atlas, antlers are pretty easy to find in most of Vale, tusks from wild boar can be pretty easy to get in Vale and Mistral, and bone can be found just about anywhere,” Mako said.

                Suddenly they felt the sub start to slow. “What’s going on?” Ruby asked. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang left to see what was going on. Mako was about to follow when Blake asked, “What are these?” gesturing to a set of scrimshaw pieces hidden in the shadows. Mako angled a lamp at them so Blake could see. She saw piece after piece of scrimshaw of sinking ships. “These are from your days with the White Fang, aren’t they?” Blake asked. “One for every ship I sunk,” Mako said. “Why keep them?” she asked. “So, I never forget why I left.”

                Blake and Mako left to join the others when they ran into the other three girls in the parlor and then they saw it, they had reached the Black Cut Trench. The girls looked down through the transparent floor down into the huge cut in the sea floor that appeared to extend down into the earth forever. “Well that’s disconcerting,” Shore said coming up next behind them looking down into the trench. “I can’t see the bottom,” Yang said. “So, the ship is all the way down there?” Ruby asked. “Not quite all the way,” Flannery said coming down the stairs with her scroll tablet in hand. “Now that we’re closer, I was able to refine the tracking position. According to this, the ship is sitting on a rock shelf about a half mile up the trench from here and about two hundred feet down the trench,” she said. “But aren’t we already like a hundred feet down? I thought a person could only dive to like a hundred and fifty feet?” Yang asked. “Well it’s recommended you don’t go below a hundred and thirty feet but that’s doesn’t count if you have one of these,” Mako said carrying in some sort of device. “What’s that?” Blake asked looking at device. “It’s called pressure repeller. It uses a combination of water and gravity dust to repel the high pressures of deep water, so a diver can work in extra deep water that would normally crush them. We’ll attach these to your dive packs, so you can swim down here,” Mako explained. “What about you, Aqua, and Shore who don’t use tanks?” Weiss asked. “As a shark Faunus I can withstand far greater pressures than others. Shark Faunus have been known to be able to dive to depths of four thousand feet, though I’ve only tested myself to a thousand. As for Aqua, the scales she can grow on her body toughen her body to withstand the high pressure and Shore can use his semblance to create an air pocket around him that repels the pressure. Flannery already has a pressure repeller built into her shell pack,” Mako explained.

                They all went up to the bridge and Shore took the helm, “Prepare for deep dive.” He pushed a large button, a diving alarm went off and red lights throughout the sub flashed. The metal plating closed over all the windows as the ballast tanks filled, and the sub began to dive into the dark abyss. “Steady as she goes,” Shore said as they slowly navigated through the trench. “Easy now.” Shore steered the sub to dodge a rock out cropping. The sub began to creak as they moved deeper and deeper. The girls began to become uneasy. “Uh is it supposed to do that?” Blake asked in a half-panicked tone. “Don’t worry she can take it,” Shore said tapping the helm. “Flannery how far?” he asked. Flannery was sitting at the sonar station with the headset on. “Alright, it should be right in front of us,” Flannery said. “Mako take the scope,” Shore said. Mako pulled down the periscope but didn’t press the button to extend it so it remained close to the hull. He spun around until he saw what he was looking for. “Got it, bring her seventy degrees to port.” Shore turned the wheel and the sub turned. “Alright slow her down a bit and when I give you the signal drop the anchors.” He held up hand preparing to signal. “And now,” he said dropping his hand. Shore through the engines in reverse bringing them to a stop and dropped the anchors to anchor them to the rock ledge.

                Shore opened the panels over the bridge’s forward window and they saw the wreck. It was covered in rust and there was a huge hole in the side. “Well let’s get to it,” Shore said. They all went down to the dive locker and changed into their dive gear before jumping into the moon pool. Bubbles swam up them twisting her head inferring she wanted to know what was going on. “Stay here Bubbles, it’s too deep for you out there,” Aqua said to the dolphin. Bubbles understood and stayed in the submarine while everyone swam out. They turned on their head lamps and swam up to the wreck. “Anyone see a way in?” Blake asked. “I got one right here,” Flannery said as she pulled out her shotgun and ignited the blowtorch. She cut a hole into the ship when they heard creaking and things shifting. “What was that?” Weiss asked.

                Grimm suddenly erupted from the ship. “Move!” Shore yelled.  Everyone fired their jets, flying back from the ship with trails of bubbles. “What do we do?” Weiss asked. “We’re huntsmen and huntresses, we kill Grimm,” Flannery said. She flicked a switch hidden under the shell on her left forearm and all the shell turned gold as she converted her shotgun into its hammer form. She hit her jets and rocketed towards the Grimm far faster than they had ever seen her go before. “What the dust?” Weiss said in disbelief. “Flannery’s shell pack has several different modes. The gold mode is faster than the others,” Aqua said before she dashed out to join Flannery.

                Flannery dodged a charging Demon Ray smashing it with her mallet. A group of Spine Mines inflated themselves launching their spines, but Flannery changed her shells to their blue mode causing the forearm shells to expand becoming more flat and block the incoming spines. Aqua jumped out from behind Flannery kicking her tail as she charged into the group of Grimm slashing them followed by Flannery.

                Shore and Mako swam out to join them and the members of team RWBY go the idea. The girls hit their jets, swimming towards the Grimm, weapons drawn. Rudy hit the jets on her scythe sending her spinning as she chopped through a group of Grimm as Weiss bounced around on glyphs stabbing the stragglers behind her.

                Shore had drawn his anchors converting them to their sword form. He dashed forward slashing a Sea Sworder down the middle followed by stabbing a Demon Ray in the back. He then connected the two weapons together forming a long harpoon. He spun it around his body and stabbed it into another Sea Sworder as he dodged it trying to stab into him. A Rip Jaw charged at him with its jaws wide, but Shore stabbed his harpoon into its armored head vaulting over it as he threw a compressed air pocket into its mouth. He propelled himself away with an air pocket as the one in the Rip Jaw exploded from the air pocket in it expanding. Another Rip Jaw was about to bite him from behind, when a red shell flew in striking the Rip Jaw. Shore spun around converting the harpoon to its harpoon gun mode and fired it at the Rip Jaw behind him killing it.  

                The red shell flew back to Flannery and back onto her forearm. She converted the shells to a new mode, so they were blue with large white spikes. She jetted up to a pair of Cancer Claws on the floor punching them and causing them to freeze solid before she took out her hammer and smashed them to pieces. “Flannery swarm fire,” Shore yelled to her. Flannery changed her shells to gold mode and rocket into the swarm of Grimm. She converted the shells to their final form, turning red and white spikes stuck out. She curled into a ball before she threw her limbs out and all the spikes on every shell launched off her shells and they all homed in on a Grimm piercing them and then exploding inside. When the bubbles cleared all the Grimm were dead and Flannery floating in the middle.

                They all swam into the wreck and started looking around. “Anyone see anything?” Mako asked. “I think I found it,” Ruby said. The others joined her in front of a large crate. “Number 1673, this is it,” Mako said. “So how do we get this thing out? Its huge,” Ruby asked. “Leave a marker and come on, we need to get some equipment,” Shore said. Mako pulled out a set of large glow sticks and cracked them to life. He dropped them on ground before they all swam out to return to the sub. Flannery climbed out of the water as the shells retracted into the backpack and she pulled off her flippers, mask, and goggles. “Flannery what are you doing?” Blake asked. “Just clear the moon pool,” she said as she climbed up a ladder into a hatch in the ceiling. “What’s she doing?” Ruby asked Shore. Shore just looked up as the ceiling began to open. “Clear the pool,” he said.

                They all dove down and cleared the moon pool. They heard a splash as if something large hit the water and a second later they saw it. It was a large mechanized suit with large claws for hands, dual jointed legs with propulsion jets, and a pair of large jets on the back with what looked like a torpedo between them. It didn’t have a head, but the chest was a big curving window for the cockpit with a winch under it, and Flannery at the controls without her breathing equipment on. Its armor plating painted mostly yellow with the backpack section was green, and the few exposed joint parts were black. “Cool huh,” they heard Flannery say through the radio. “Meet Big Bow our mechanized diving suit. We use it to salvage large materials,” Flannery said.

                She hit the jets on Big Bow and was propelled towards the ship, landing on the sea floor near the ship. She flipped a control in the cockpit and a large blowtorch extended and ignited. She quickly carved a much larger hole in the dive of the ship before grabbing the side of the hole with the claws and pried it the rest of the way open. The others swam in before Flannery followed in Big Bow and followed the glow of the glow sticks but when they go there the crate was gone. “Wait, where did the crate go?” Ruby asked. “Hold on,” Flannery said flipping some switches in the cockpit and several spot lights went on filling the area with light. With the help of the light, Blake noticed drag marks in the sand. “What’s with this trail?” Blake asked. They followed the trail to find a large cave in the in the side of the trench the ship was leaning on. “How did we not see this before?” Mako asked. “We weren’t looking for it.

                They entered the cave following the trail of drag marks until they reached a dead end. “What the, this doesn’t make sense. How can it be a dead end?” Weiss asked. Frustrated Ruby flipped on her back to think when she looked up. “Guys what’s that?” she asked pointing up. Everyone looked up. “It looks like the surface,” Mako said. “But how?” Blake asked. Shore swam up and surfaced in a cavern. He inhaled, and the air was breathable. “It an air pocket, there’s a whole cavern in here,” he said. “How’s the air?” Flannery asked. “Stale but breathable,” he said. The others surfaced along with Shore in a large cavern. “I can’t see anything,” Ruby said. “Flannery,” Shore said. Flannery flicked a switch and several flares launched out in all directing illuminating the cavern. Now that they could see, they could see there was an edge to the water they surfaced in and dry land. They reached the edge and climbed out as Flannery opened her cockpit climbing out. Mako grabbed a flashlight from his belt pouch flicking it on. “I’ve seen my fair share of air pockets in cavern but never ones this deep,” he said. Ruby flicked on her own flashlight and saw the crate. “There it is,” she said and dashed up to it. The others walked up to the crate and looked it over. “It looks like its fine,” Aqua said. “But how did it get in here?” Shore asked. As they looked the crate over Mako started to get a weird feeling. Shore noticed his teammate was feeling off, “Mako, you alright?” Mako focused his semblance trying to see what he was making him uneasy and then he saw it. Suddenly everyone heard a groaning. “Mako what was that?” Flannery asked. “No sudden movements,” he said, and everyone froze as a huge Craw Claw came out of a cave. “Alright everyone slowly, put on your goggles and masks and on my mark run for the water. As soon as you get there dive in and swim out as fast as you can. Flannery, get in Big Bow and try to deal with that thing. Alright, GO!” Shore yelled, and everyone ran for the water.

                The RWBY girls jumped in the water and swam out of the cavern and shipwreck as fast as they could. Yang looked around, “Where are the others?” Suddenly Shore, Aqua, and Mako flew out of the wreck as if they had been struck by the Craw Claw followed by Flannery tackling out the Craw Claw and throwing it against the side of the trench. Flannery flipped a switch and the torpedo like structure on the back moved onto the right arm and the end revealed to be a Gatling flechette cannon. She opened fire pelting the giant lobster Grimm with the metal darts. She moved the flechette gun back to the back and gunned the jets ramming into the Grimm. She backed off a bit and the Grimm grabbed onto the mech’s arm. Flannery acted fast punching the Grimm’s claw trying to get it to let go. When that failed she reequipped the flechette cannon putting the barrel to the Craw Claw’s arm and fired point blank. The flechettes tore through the arm and the whole claw came off. The Grimm tried to slash her with its other claw, but Flannery caught it in the other claw and gripped down until it was completely severed. The Craw Claw whipped her with its tail forcing her back and tried to run but Flannery wasn’t letting it get away. She flipped the button guard off one of the triggers and hatches on the chest opened revealing torpedoes. She pulled the trigger and several torpedoes flew out exploding on impact. As the Grimm was dazed Flannery walked up to the Grimm, grabbing it with her claws, and tore it in half.

* * *

 

                With the Grimm destroyed they managed to remove the crate from the cavern and got it aboard the Submariner. With both parts of the reactor retrieved their mission was complete and they returned to Vale. After turning the reactor over to the Crawly Ship Company, the members of team SPAT drove the girls back to Beacon.  When they pulled onto the campus they found the other teams of students with the Huntsmen they spent the past couple of weeks shadowing. They all looked terrible, like they had been put through the ringer. “What happened to you guys?” Ruby asked. “We spent most of the time running from an angry Al,” Jaune said. “We swabbed decks for two weeks,” Neptune said rubbing his sore arms. “Look at it this way kid, it builds muscle,” Rad said slapping him on the back making him flinch. “We don’t want to talk about,” was all Cardin said as his team walked off. Scotch and Lonan fist bumped laughing at team CDRL as they took their walk of shame.

                Suddenly Matt and Narco came walking by with a large wooden barrel. “Matt what’s that?” Ruby asked. Matt was startled nearly dropping the barrel just managing to catch it. Matt looked to his colleagues, “Guys, I told you to keep them out in the field until this evening not morning,” Matt said. “Wait why are you trying to get rid of us?” Weiss asked. Matt rolled his eyes, “follow us.”  

                They followed Matt and Narco through the courtyard and to a building they had never seen before off the main avenue into the courtyard. It was a building done in a medieval stone work style for most of the building and what looked like a huge beer barrel for the rest of it. Over the door was a hanging sign on an extending pole that read “The Hunter’s Den”. Razor was standing on a barrel polishing the sign. “Razor is everything done?” Matt asked. “That’s the last barrel you got there,” Razor said before noticing the students. “Matt, I thought they weren’t supposed to be back till this evening,” Razor griped. “That was the plan,” Matt said disapprovingly to his other colleagues. “Matt what is this?” Yang asked. “Well the bills from repairing the Moon’s Den after all the bar brawls are piling up so I needed a new source of income to keep up with them. So, Matt suggested we take another shot at talking Ozpin into this idea,” Razor said. “So, what is this place?” Blake asked. Razor jumped down from his barrel and opened the door gesturing for them to enter.

                Stepping inside they found the interior extended down into the ground making it much larger inside than it looked from the outside. Inside it looked like a medieval pub with an open dining area with tables and chairs with a high ceiling that took up half the building, a large fireplace with several couches off to the side, and a stage along the back wall with a group of instruments sitting on it. The other half was broken up between two floors with a loft with a bar long wooden bar with huge decorative barrels behind it under the loft with a lounge area with plenty of couches and low tables next to it. Upstairs in the loft was a game room area with classic arcade machines, dart boards, pool tables, and other games. The walls all over had TVs and plenty of pictures documenting various happy events in Beacon’s history and stained-glass windows high along the walls to let light in.

                Everyone walked down the stairs into the main dining area looking around. “You built a bar on campus?” Ren asked. “More of a club than a bar, don’t expect alcohol,” Razor said. But you still got a stash of the good stuff for the alumni, right?” Matt asked. “Of course,” Razor said as he vaulted himself over the bar to get behind it and rubbed the fine wood bar top. “I’ve always wanted a good old fashioned medieval style tavern,” Razor said. “The idea was to give students a place on campus they could go to escape the stressful atmosphere Beacon can have between studies and fighting. We pitched this idea Ozpin a few years ago but he turned us down but a month ago we tried again, and he went for it. So, we planned so we could build the place while all the students were gone for two weeks,” Matt said. “How did you even build such a large building in such a short amount of time?” Pyrrha asked. “Ringo’s plants dug the in-ground sections within two days and then Goodwitch assembled the building with her semblance in a day. After that furnishing the place, stocking the bar and Kitchen and wiring the rest of the place was easy,” Razor said as he took a beer mug. He put it to one of the taps on the large barrels behind the bar filling it with root beer giving it a perfect foam head. He took a sip, “ah, perfect poor. The taps work fine,” he said.

                He started twirling a bar stirrer in his fingers as he asked, “Anyone want a drink?” “Strawberry Sunrise, no ice,” Yang said. Razor started working on the drink as he tossed a couple of menus on the bar. “Anyone else?” he asked. They started to look at the menus noticing it was broken up into groups of four each group labeled as a huntsmen team including team RWBY. “What’s with these drink names?” Nora asked. “Razor makes up drinks based on the personalities of his Beacon students, huntsmen, and huntresses. He’s already got drinks for our team,” Ruby said. Nora took a closer look at the four drinks under team RWBY the Rosebud, the Ice Queen, the Black Cat, and the Firecracker. “No fair how come they get drinks named after them and we don’t?” Nora whined. “Well I’ve gotten to know them better. Matt’s brought them in to the Moon’s Den a couple of times, so I got a pretty good idea what kind of people they are. Give me a few weeks to get to know you and I should be able to come up with something,” Razor said. “That reminds me, what are you going to do about your bar in town if you’re here running this place?” Yang asked sipping her drink. “My little sister Ingot just got her bartender’s certification so she’s going to run the Moon’s Den for me while I run this place,” Razor said. “And what happens when another group of bikers role in?” Weiss asked. “Trust me, my baby sister may not be a huntress, but she has claws and can be pretty feisty. She’ll be fine,” he said. “Now, anyone going to order?”


	16. A Greasy Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After receiving a call out of no where, Narco takes off in the middle of overhauling Beacon's fleet of Bullhead transports. With Beacon's transport fleet crippled the remaining members of teams MRLN and team RWBY have to track down Narco and and convince him to come back However during this mission they will uncover a dark and messy past Narco has been keeping from them and what caused him to leave.

                It was a calm day at Beacon Academy with no major assignments out, no big exams coming up, and most importantly no major threat to the safety of Vale. Days like this had become rare and Yang, Narco, and Matt were not going to let this free time go to waste. The three of them were in the hanger working on their various projects. Narco was doing maintenance on the Bullheads that he had been putting off for a while. Matt was working out some kinks in his prized muscle car the Eligos, and Yang was right next to him working on her motorcycle. Matt’s three dogs plus Zwei had joined them falling asleep in a big pile in the corner. She had been meaning to change out the tires and do some work on it since she and Neptune had used it to chase Roman Torchwick in a mech down a highway. Her bike had taken a fair beating during the past year and she had been dying to get a free day to work on it. The tires needed replacing, the oil needed to be changed, the shocks were on their last legs, and the brake pads had been worn to almost non-existence.  
                As she worked she stood up from her work with a wrench in hand and stretched. “Ah, man my bike really needed some TLC. If I took her out in this condition she’d probably fall apart after about an hour,” she said wiping some oil off her face with the sleeve of the work coveralls she was wearing her hair tied back in a ponytail. “I know it’s always so busy around here for everyone,” Matt said still neck deep in his engine block. Yang walked over to him and leaned into the engine with him. “What are you working on anyway?” she asked. “Oh the nitro system is on the fritz. The release on the tank keeps jamming,” he said. “Better there than the injector,” Yang said. “True if it jammed at the injector, the Nitro dust would just build up in the hose until the heat of the engine ignited it,” he said tightening a nut. Matt pushed himself out of the engine wiping off his wrench followed by Yang.  
                They both turned to lean on the hood as they looked up to see large engine components of Bullheads moving about on winches and almost all of the Bullheads in pieces. “Lewy bring that engine pod down to the work station so I can work on it!” Narco called out to his subordinate. “Got it boss!” Lewy yelled. “You know I don’t think I’ve actually met this Lewy Narco’s always talking to,” Yang said. “Well his name is actually Blue but we all just call him Lewy,” Matt said. Narco jumped off the upper landing platform grabbing onto a descending chain winch and road it down to the ground. He stretched out as he walked over to Matt and Yang. “So how’s the bike and car looking?” he asked. “I’m glad I finally got around to doing this work, my bike was a mess,” Yang said. “Narco can you take a look at the nitro system? The main tank’s release valve keeps sticking,” Matt asked. “Sure I got a few minutes,” Narco said pulling out a wrench and dragging over a dolly. He laid back and slid under Matt’s car. “Yeah I think I see the problem. The valve keeps sticking because of where you positioned the nitro tank. It’s too close to the main engine and the heat keeps making the valve stick. I think you got space next to the main gas tank,” Narco said.  
                Suddenly Narco’s scroll rang and he picked it up under the car while he worked. “Hello, hey how’s everything?” Narco listen the person on the other end. “WHAT!” he yelled as he tried to sit up and slammed his head into the under carriage. He rolled out from under the car to finish his call. “Yeah… Yeah… Alright bye…” Narco hung up and stepped into a shadow without a word. Matt and Yang heard some clunking around up in Narco’s loft before he stepped out of another shadow with a set of saddlebags slung over his shoulder. He threw the bags over the seat of his motorcycle and got on kicking the primer as the engine roared to life. He put it in gear and road out of the hanger without a word. “What was that all about?” Yang asked. “I don’t know but without Narco we got a problem here,” Matt said looking around at all the incomplete Bullheads around them. “Call the other girls, I’ll call Ringo and Lulu. We got a lot of work to do.” Matt’s dogs whimpered with Sarge and Frostbite lowering their ears.  
The next afternoon Ozpin was having a video call with General Ironwood. “No James, I am standing firm on this. I cannot allow you to station heavily armed battle mechs in the city,” Ozpin said firmly. “Ozpin the counsel put me in charge of security for the Vytal festival,” Ironwood said. “Yes the festival, not the city. If you put that much fire power in the middle of the city it will cause the people to think something is wrong. They will panic and the it will attract the Grimm,” Ozpin argued. “My decision stands Ozpin I have to go,” Ironwood before signing off. “Agh, James can be so infuriating. Glynda call Mr. Grizzle and get me a Bullhead. If he won’t talk to me over a video call then I’ll talk to him in person,” Ozpin said. Glynda dialed her scroll but no one picked up. “That’s odd, Narco isn’t picking up,” she said. “Forget it, we’ll go down to the hanger in person,” Ozpin said standing up and grabbing his cane.  
                Upon reaching the hanger Ozpin and Goodwitch found an utter mess. Parts were scattered about, Bullhead engine pods were in pieces, and there was no one to be seen. Suddenly they heard a soft thud and a group of tires rolled across the hanger. “Ruby catch those tires!” they could here Weiss yell as the young scythe wielder in a set of coveralls chased the runaway tires. “Agh, someone give me a hand with these Barrels!” Blake yelled. “I got you,” Lulu called out. There was a bark and Matt’s dogs Dax, Sarge, and Frostbite chased a runaway barrel across the hanger, getting in front of it and pushing it back where it came from with their heads. “Careful guys,” Matt said as he walked across the hanger with a cart of parts. Ozpin cleared his throat loudly getting their attention. Everyone froze before popping out from somewhere to look at Ozpin. “Oh hey Oz, What brings you here?” Matt asked guiltily. “What in Remnant happened here?!” he demanded to know. “Well yesterday Narco go a call and then just left in the middle of over hauling the engine pods on all the Bullheads so none of them have engines attached. So we’ve been trying and failing to get these things put back together,” Matt said. “But everything we do just seems to make things worse,” Ruby whined. “Yeah, Narco’s got this whole place working on some sort of system that seems to work for him but every time we try to do something, something goes wrong,” Ringo said as everyone walked up to Ozpin. “Then where did Mr. Grizzle go?” he asked. “We don’t know,” Ruby said. “Well find out!” Ozpin said raising his voice which was an incredibly rare and disturbing occurrence.  
                Matt fumbled out his scroll tabled and started tapping things. “What are you doing?” Ozpin asked. “Matt has tracking devices in all of our team’s scrolls. We can all track each other when necessary,” Lulu said. “Let’s see according to this he’s in, Deus Ex?” Matt said confused. “Deus Ex, isn’t that a heavily industrial city south of Vale?” Weiss asked. “Yeah, why would Narco be there?” Blake asked. “Deus Ex is Narco’s home town. He doesn’t talk about it much so we never really pried,” Matt said. “That wouldn’t have anything to do with his criminal record would it?” Goodwitch asked. “Narco has a criminal record?” Yang asked. “He doesn’t like to talk about it. I’ve read it; it’s nothing more than a little vandalism and some disturbing the peace on his juvenile record,” Matt said. “I don’t care why he’s there. Go to Deus Ex, find Mr. Grizzle, and BRING HIM BACK!” Ozpin said. “How, all the Bullheads are in pieces,” Weiss asked. “We can take the Glass Snake Highway,” Lulu said. “But how, we can’t fit seven people in Matt’s car,” Weiss said. Matt thought for a minute before snapping, “I thing I got an idea but it depends on how far Narco has gotten on it,” Matt said before he walked over to a switch box on one of the columns. “You guys may want to move,” he said as he pulled a lever in the switch box and the ground began to shake a bit before opening.  
                Everyone moved as a large platform raised up with a large armored vehicle the size of several semi-trucks. “What that heck is this?” Ozpin asked. “Remember about a year or two ago Narco and I came to you looking for a grant for five million Lien?” Matt asked Ozpin. “Yes you had some plan to solve the Huntsmen logistical problem,” Ozpin said. “What does he mean by logistical problem?” Yang asked. “Since the conception of huntsmen and huntresses, they’ve always had a problem with housing and supplies. Huntsmen are a mobile people and never tend to stay in one place for too long and often don’t have anywhere to stay. Most cities and larger settlements have what are called hunter posts which are facilities that supply food and shelter to huntsmen for free as well as cheap quality munitions and workshops for weapon repair,” Glynda said. “However, most smaller settlements are not large enough to have a hunter post, so Narco and I came up with the idea of designing a mobile hunter post that could be easily moved in and stationed in new settlements plus support large groups of huntsmen and huntresses during deep territory missions to take back land from the Grimm,” Matt said as he pulled a release on a forward hatch that opened lowering a ramp.  
                They walked into the machine and into a garage like facility. “We call it the Blind, like a hunter’s blind. This monster has facilities to sleep twenty huntsmen and huntresses, workshop space for weapons repair, a full galley with space to store food for three months for those huntsmen and huntresses plus ammunition to keep them fighting for months. She has garage space has room for several vehicles as well as tools to keep them running and even a large scale rapid 3D printer that can make any replacement parts, a fully equipped medical bay, and an automated system of defensive turrets to suppress attacks against it,” Matt said as he guided everyone through the sleek and clean interior of the machine and upstairs to the indoor bridge. “How exactly does this monstrosity move?” Goodwitch asked. Matt picked up a binder that was sitting on one of the consoles opening it. He started thumbing through the binder as he answered, “It flies mainly but it has hover craft jets on the bottom for moving along the ground.” “Oh wow he got farther than I thought,” Matt said. “What?” Ozpin asked looking for an explanation. “What’s that book anyway?” Weiss asked. “Since this was a Beacon funded project we had to keep meticulous records of everything we bought for construction, and kept a log of the construction process. According to this Narco has been working on this a lot more than I thought. All that’s left to do is install the defense array and stock the galley, otherwise this thing is fully functional,” Matt said. “And it appears we came in a million Lien under budget.” “How fast is it?” Goodwitch asked. “If we leave in the next hour we could be in Deus Ex by morning,” Matt said. “Then you have transportation. Take this vehicle to Deus Ex, find Narco, bring him back, and fix these Bullheads,” Ozpin said. “Girls pack your bags, you’re coming with us,” Matt said closing the binder. As the girls ran off to pack Matt’s dogs and Zwei looked at each other as if they were communicating through their thoughts.  
                The girls ran off to pack their bags before coming back to the Blind. Matt had already loaded his car and motorcycle into the Blind’s garage as well as Yang’s bike, and locked them down for flight. “Alright let’s light this candle,” Matt said as he took the controls. He started the vessel’s engines and the whole machine began to vibrate. “Matt you have tested this thing before right?” Weiss asked. “Narco never made a note of an engine test in the log book,” Matt said as the vessel began to float off the ground and out of the Hanger. After clearing the doors, the Blind floated up into the air and extended flipper like wings on the sides like most airships had. He eased the throttle forward and the ship moved south towards Deus Ex.  
                The next morning the girls woke from their bunks and found Matt on the bridge looking forward at the city of Deus Ex before them. The city was found at the base of a mountain that they could see was being thoroughly mined for resources from the number of mines. The city itself even from a distance had a dark ominous feel to it. They could see dozens of factories with smoke stacks pumping out smoke, shipyards near to ocean building aquatic vessels, and airships being constructed in their own shipyards further inland. “This town looks gross,” Weiss said. “Yeah Deus Ex has a reputation of being a little rough, lots of blue collar people here. Do me, Ringo, and Lulu a favor and stay close,” Matt said as he took the controls again.  
                Matt set the Blind down in the wood just outside of town where it wouldn’t be easily found. He then started a display screen off to the side of the bridge pulling up a map. “Alright, according to the tracking data Narco should be about here,” he said pointing to a spot on the south side of the town. “Ringo and Lulu go into town and see if you can talk to the local cops, see if they have any idea where Narco would go, I’ll take the girls and follow the tracking data to Narco’s scroll. “Matt, how are we supposed to get into town?” Lulu asked. Matt thought for a minute before he huffed. “Narco’s going to kill me for this, follow me,” he said guiding them down to the garage. He through a switch and a pair of motorcycles lowered from the ceiling. The first one looked like a customized BMW R75 motorcycle with a purple and black paint job and Lulu’s emblem on the gas tank plus a purple WWII style soldier’s helmet riding helmet hanging from the handlebar. The other was a roadster style motorcycle with a blue and yellow paint job with vine like details on the framework and a blue modular helmet on the handle bars. Lulu and Ringo squealed like girls on Christmas morning.  
                “Narco and I have been working on these for a while. We were planning to save them for our anniversaries but I guess now’s as good a time as any. But Lulu promise me you’ll keep Narco from killing me,” Matt said. “You got it Matt,” Lulu said mounting her new bike. Ringo gave Matt a kiss on the cheek before mounting her bike and ran her hand over the vine designs on the frame. “Alright their pretty standard bikes plus they have attachment points for your weapons. Lulu yours is on the front suspension. The clip point is on is on a jointed arm so you can aim and fire while riding. Ringo your main clip point is along the back wheel but there’s a clip point on the handle bars to stabilize shots while riding. Ringo and Lulu put on their helmets and started their bikes. They roared to life and purred. “Oh that’s beautiful,” Lulu said before revving her engine and taking off followed by Ringo. “Well they seem happy,” Blake said. “Yeah, well let’s roll too,” Matt said flipping his keys in his fingers.  
                Matt got behind the wheel of his car and the girls piled in, filling the back seat and taking the front passenger seat. They left the Blind as the hatch closed behind them and the vessel went into lock down. They pulled onto out of the woods and onto a paved road entering Deus Ex. It wasn’t exactly the cheeriest of cities. The sky was mostly blocked out by the smoke of the factories and the street felt dark and ominous. The people looked rather tough and uncultured, the kind of people that looked like they worked blue collar jobs. Matt flicked a switch and the window tint changed so no one could see into the car. “Rough town,” Yang said. “Welcome to Deus Ex,” Matt said as he started up the car’s heads up display and a GPS map popped up. Matt followed the map until they reach the location the GPS marked. It appeared to be a garage and auto parts shop with some sort of apartment above the shop. The sign above the shop window read “Grizzly’s Auto Shop”. “Figures, the grease monkey’s in an auto parts shop,” Weiss said. “Don’t rush it Weiss. Deus Ex is known to have one of the most extensive black markets outside of Mistral. For all we know he lost his scroll in a fight and it was sold to someone here,” Matt said as he parked in a large open lot next to the shop.  
                They walked in trying to look nonchalant. He gestured to the girls and Ruby and Weiss split off to look around while Matt walked over to the counter with Blake and Yang. Matt rang the bell and a middle-aged well-built man came out of the back. He had black hair that was slightly greying and five o’clock shadow. He wore a grey t shirt over a black mechanics shirt with a patch with “Cole” embroidered on it, blue pants, a brown leather tool belt hanging off his right side, and tan work boots. “Can I help ya?” he asked in a county like accent similar to Narco’s. Matt pulled out a small moleskin notebook opening it, “Yeah I need two ceramic brake pads and disks, a reinforced rear wheel drive axle, two class two fuel injections valves, and ten feet of drive chain,” Matt said. The man wrote down the parts on a list. “Girls,” he called out. And a group of girls in various ages came out of the back.  
                The smallest one looked about eight years old with short cut dark brown hair. She wore an off white slightly gold beanie that is a few sizes to large, an off white slightly gold cropped shirt, brown shorts, black suspenders, off white slightly gold stockings, and brown work boots.  
Two of the girls appeared to be identical twin about ten years old with black hair. The first one had her hair tied in two short pig tails on the back of her head and hanging down over her shoulders. She wore a red shirt, black hoodie with hood up over a red and white trucker cap cocked up to the side, black leather vest with pockets, dark blue denim shorts over black tights cut just past the knee, black sneakers, a pair of grey driving goggles around neck, slack brown leather belt, and a red and white wrist sweat band on one wrist. The other one had her hair free cut above her shoulders. She wore a black oversized sleeveless zip up hoodie with white detail with the hood up, dark blue bike shorts that were cut above her knees, black sneakers, and white socks with one longer than the other.  
                The fourth girl was about fifteen with black hair in a short messy ponytail with white tips and one white bang on the side of her face. She wore a black flat top army cap, silver goggles with yellow lenses on the forehead, black and white horizontal striped short-sleeve crop top, black fingerless glove that cover most of the forearm, black fingerless glove on the other hand, white sweatband, form fitting black vest with maroon sides, black pants with maroon pockets, brown leather belt with tool pouches on one side, black boots, and a large fanny pack like tool back hanging across her back hips.  
                “Girls take this and go find these parts for me,” he said handing the list to the eldest girl. “Got it pops,” she said as the girls went into the back. “Your daughters?” Matt asked. “My prides and joy,” the shop owner said. “Must be tough with four daughters, I guess you’re the only man in the house,” Matt said. “Well I do have a son but he doesn’t live at home anymore. Kid became a big time huntsman,” the shop owner said as he organized a shelf behind him. “I should have known, you’re Narco’s father,” Matt said. The shop owner stopped in his track. “What do you want with my son?” “He’s a friend of mine,” Matt said then he felt something metal around his neck. Blake and Yang each jumped back to see the fifteen year old daughter with some sort of weapon. It was shaped like a giant pipe wrench with a barrel and she had its mouth around Matt’s throat. “Liar you’re one of those Smash Punk here to get back at Narco for beating down your boys yesterday. Yang was about to unpack her gauntlets but at the slightest movements the daughter twitch, “ah, ah, ah, I got my brother’s itchy trigger finger. One shot, the mouth closes in a micro second and crushes his throat.” “Easy Yang,” Matt said slowly raising a had to calm the blonde. Suddenly Matt bolted away as lightning around behind the daughter. He smacked the wrench out of her hand as he drew one of his Seraph machine pistols putting it to her head. The other three daughters came out with a cart of parts saying, “We got it Pops,” before freezing at the sight of someone holding a gun to their sister’s head. “Not bad. I can count the people in Remnant that can sneak up on me on one hand. You’d make one heck of a huntress,” Matt said holstering the gun letting the daughter relax.  
                “What do you want?” she asked. “My name is Matt Vert. I’m a professor at Beacon Academy and I was sent to find Narco after he took off yesterday in the middle of overhauling the school’s fleet of Bullheads,” Matt said. He was about to continue his explanation when they heard a bunch of loud engines outside and pull into the lot. “Papa…” the youngest said from looking out the front window and pulled her beanie over her eyes in fear. “Dust, girls hide,” the shop owner said before turning to Matt. “Look I don’t know you but please just don’t get involved in this. Just act like customers and pretend to look around and whatever happens don’t mess with these guys.” Matt shrugged agreeing and gestured to the girls to follow suit. The shop keeper’s daughters all hid, the twins dove into a pair of empty metal barrels, the eldest dove behind the counter, and the youngest jumped into a stack of tires. Matt and the girls split up and pretended to browse the shelfs of parts.  
The front door flew open and a bunch of punk rock looking thugs in denim and leather outfits with crazy colored hair and even a few with Mohawks. They strutted in spreading throughout the store while one that seemed to be the leader strutted up to the shop owner at the counter. “Old man Cole how you doing?” the leader asked. “It’s just Cole kid. I’m not that old,” the shop keeper said whose name was apparently Cole. “Funny man,” the leader of the thugs said. Then he signaled one of his boys and they flipped over a display stand. Cole cringed at the sound. “It’s the end of the month-old man, now it’s time to pay your Dues,” the leader said. Cole went for the cash register when Matt started laughing. The lead thug looked at him annoyed, “What’s so funny man?” “An old-school protection scheme? That is so cliché. I haven’t seen a group of idiots try one of those in years,” he said laughing. The thugs’ leader was angered by Matt’s disrespect and noticed Ruby browsing close behind him. He grabbed her by the collar and pulled her over, drawing a gun and pointing in at her head. “Apologize man or I’ll splatter her brains all over this place,” he threatened. Matt just laughed even harder, “Oh buddy you have no idea what a bad mistake you just made.” The lead thug tilted his head in confusion. “You have no idea what she did to the last guy that pointed a weapon at her,” Matt said. The leader looked at Ruby who looked at him with a devious smile. Matt looked to Cole, “I’ll pay for this.” “Pay for what?” Cloe asked. “Girls,” Matt called out.  
                Outside the shop the sounds of slashing and gun fire could be heard before several of the thugs flew through the front window and piles of tires with the girls as they tackled them out. The rest of the thugs ran outside to see the girls after they flipped over the tackled thugs and unpack their weapons. They One of them tried to draw a gun but there was a crack of thunder Matt appeared in front of him as his sword rocket launched from the trunk of his car. Matt caught the sword bolting up to the thug slicing his gun in half before bolting over to the girls and converting it to its full scythe mode. “What the dust?!” the lead thug said. “This is what happens when you threaten four Beacon academy students,” Matt said. One of the thugs panicked and charged Matt with a sword. Matt side stepped delivering an upward slash that sent the guy flying upward before coming back around slamming the thug back over to his cohorts. “And that’s what happens when you threaten a Beacon Academy professor.”  
                The lead thug gritted his teeth in anger before he heard a small groan and saw the youngest of Cole’s daughters lying on the ground. Apparently when they flew through the window and tires, they knocked her out of her hiding place in the tires. The thug leader acted quick grabbing her and putting a pistol to her head. “Drop your weapons,” he said. Matt gritted his teeth when he noticed a glint from an alley next to the shop. It took him a half second to realize what or who it was. He nodded slightly. It seemed like he was nodding in compliance to the thug’s threat but was signaling to the glint in the alley. The girls were about to attack but Matt held his hand up stopping them. “Drop them girls,” he said. “What?” Yang asked questioning his decision. “Never risk the lives of civilians, now drop them,” he said. The girls were reluctant but they compacted their weapons dropping them to the ground as Matt dropped his swords and carefully removed his machine pistols and dropping them to the ground. The lead thug started laughing at them, “That’s better. I swear huntsmen think they’re all that but as some as you put gun to a kids head they fold. You think you’re all that but…” Suddenly thug’s hostage fell into his shadow disappearing. “What the?!” Matt whipped up his jacket releasing his talons while the girls scrambled to grab their weapons. Matts talons opened fire at the thugs’ feet and they tried to run down the street but Narco flew out of a shadow with his shotgun out. The thugs skidded to a halt. They looked behind them at Matt and the girls and then forward at the lone Narco in front of them. Narco did not look happy. He wasn’t his usual happy country boy self. His eyes were dark and he looked like he was hungry for blood. The girls were about to charge but Matt held up a hand to stop them. “They threatened his family, this is his fight,” he said.  
                Narco jumped into a shadow before flying out of another next to the remaining thugs, firing his shotgun taking one out while he was still airborne. He landed in a roll as he shot another one before converting it to its chainsaw sword form slashing upwards as he popped upright. From there he back flipped into a shadow against a wall behind him before jumping out of another whipping out his chain. It wrapped around a thug and he pulled hard dragging the thug towards him and he slashed him as he sidestepped out of the way. One of the thugs pulled out a baseball bat charging at Narco but Narco slashed the bat in half as he converted it to its glaive form spinning around and striking the thug down.  
                At this point only the leader was left and all his cronies were on the ground unconscious. He pulled out an oversized baseball bat with barbwire across it. The thug charged at him swinging the barbed bat. Narco rolled under the bat before popping back to his feet swinging his chainsaw sword. The thug blocked it against his bat deflecting Narco down away from him. Narco rolled converting his weapon to its shotgun form and fired before rolling into a shadow. The thug dodged the shotgun shells ducking behind a car but then Narco flew out of a shadow slashing down at him. He jumped away from the chainsaw edge before charging back at Narco swinging. Narco rolled under the car dodging the bat and whipped off his chain. He threw it into a shadow and the hook end came out of the shadow under the car latching onto the thug’s arm. Narco pulled hard slamming the thug’s head into the car door before the claw released and he pulled the chain back to himself. He converted Chop Shop to its wrench form as the thug staggered to his feet and grabbed him by the shoulder in the wrench’s mouth. He swung hard flipping the thug over the car and threw him across the road and against a wall. The thug came to his senses just as Narco charged at him with his chainsaw sword slashing for his neck. The thug leader managed to bring up his bat and block Narco as their weapons locked together and he tried to drive his weapon closer to the thug’s throat. As he got closer he pulled the trigger for the chainsaw and the teeth began to spin causing sparks to fly. Narco never pulled the trigger for the chainsaw when fighting other people. He only ever used it on Grimm because he never held back on them. When he pulled that trigger he wanted blood. He put his weight into it as his blade closed in on the thug’s throat. “Please no!” the thug cried fearing for his life. Narco wasn’t fazed by his pleas. The teeth were less than an inch from the thug’s throat when Matt spoke. “Narco!” he called out. Narco looked to Matt. Matt just gave him a look, it was assertive but disapproving. “Argh,” Narco yelled as shifted his weight against the blade and the tip ground into the brick wall behind the thug before shifting the weight spinning and chopped down a lamp post in one movement. He stood there breathing hard his as the thug slid down the wall to a sitting position. The thug was about to run when a shotgun blast struck the wall next to his head and he froze. He slowly looked up to see Narco pointing his shotgun to his head. “Tell your boss, if I see even a single Smash Punk near my family again, I’ll send them back in pieces the size of lug nuts and then I’ll come for them,” Narco threatened. “Now get out of here.” The thug was frozen in fear. Narco fired another blast into the wall, “GO!” The thug scrambled to his feet and ran for his life.  
                Narco loaded new shells into his shotgun as he watched the thug run. He turned to walk back to Matt and the girls to find Matt standing right in his face. “What the dust was that Narco?” Matt asked. Narco went around him and continued back to the shop. Matt bolted up next to him. “Narco I’ve known you for years and I have never seen you that ruthless with a human being, ever,” Matt said. “Matt there are some things in this world you never mess with. Never mess with a man’s car, his girl, and never ever mess with his family,” Narco said as he calmed down and composed himself. They reached everyone else in front of the shop. “You alright Pops” Narco asked Cole. “I’m fine Narco. Do you know these people?” Cole asked. “Yeah this is Matt. He was my team leader during our academy days. The girls are four of his students,” Narco said.  
“Narky!” Narco’s sisters yelled as they all tackled him into a dog pile ordered by age with Narco. “Oh come on girls, get off,” Narco said playfully trying to get up before slumping back to the ground. “It’s nice to finally meet Narco’s family. He always talks about his family and the barbeques, working on cars, the crazy stuff his sister did. Off course we always thought he just had one sister not four,” Matt said shaking Cole’s hand. “It’s a pleasure professor Vert. I’m Cole Grizzle,” Cole said properly introducing himself. “Call me Matt, I hate being called professor. It makes me feel old,” Matt said. “Oh you should meet my wife. Glaucia!” Cole called out. One of the windows over the shop opened and a woman leaned out, “Cole did I hear gun fire?” “Everything’s fine Dawlin, come down and meet some of Narco’s friends,” Cole yelled to her. The woman came down to in front of the store. She had short dark brown hair with a red bandana tide around her head, wore a grease stained blue tank top, grey coveralls tied off around her waist, and brown boots. “This is my wife Glaucia. Glaucia this is Matt Narco’s partner,” Cole said. “No I was our team’s leader. Narco and I had separate partners, which reminds me I should call them,” Matt said excusing himself taking out his scroll. “Wait you guys brought Ringo and Lulu too?” Narco asked trying to get up again and failing. “Narky you’re being rude. Introduce your sisters,” the twin with pigtails said. Narco slummed back to the ground. “Not until you girls get off of me,” he said. “Alright girls let’s dig out our dear brother,” the eldest sister said. The girls got off of Narco lining up for him to introduce. He started with the eldest of his sisters. “This is Maroon the eldest of my sisters. She wants to be a huntress like her big brother,” Narco said. He moved onto the twins pulling the two of them under his arms in playful choke holds. These two are Kali…” he said gesturing his head to the one with pigtails and trucker cap, “and Ceara,” he said gesturing to the one in the oversized hoodie. “Of course I just call them Sparkplug and Brake Pad. Kali the hyper active little ball of energy like a sparkplug, and Ceara is the brake pad that always has to slow her down,” Narco said. He moved onto the last youngest sister scooping her up in a hug before seating her on his shoulders, “And the baby of the family Cola.” “Oh Narky,” Cola said embarrassed as she pulled her beanie down over her eyes again. “She can be a little shy,” he said.  
                As he put Cola down they heard Ringo and Lulu pull up on their new bikes. “Matt we were saving those for our anniversaries!” Narco scolded. “They needed something to ride while we came here, so I gave Ringo the Seedly and Lulu the Kaiser,” Matt said in his own defense. “So they road them all the way here from Vale?” Narco asked. “Not exactly. You left the entire fleet of Bullheads in pieces so we had to use ‘other’ means of transportation,” Matt said. Narco took a second to process his meaning before his eyes went wide. “You didn’t?” he asked. “Look at it this way, we know the Blind flies,” Matt said. “Oh dust, alright, where is it?” Narco asked fearing for his creation. “Relax, we set it down in a clearing in the woods outside of town, away from major roads, and we put it in lockdown mode when we left. Now tell me why the dust you just took off and left the hanger in shambles?” Matt asked. Narco walked over to the alley next to the shop and pulled out his motorcycle. “First you and me are going to go get the Blind and move it to the lot next door so I can keep an eye on it,” he said. “Fine, girls stay here. We’ll be back in a bit,” Matt said as he got in his car and he and he drove off followed by Narco on his bike. “Why don’t we go inside?” Glaucia suggested.  
                Glaucia guided the girls and her own family into the auto garage on the way upstairs to the Grizzle family’s home. It was a pretty standard mechanic’s garage, upright toolboxes full of tools, jackets, air compressor, a couple of car lifts, painting equipment, and mobile spot lights. As they walked through Cola called out, “Mutton wake up boy.” They girls noticed a stirring in the corner, focusing their eyes to realize it was a large dog in a dog bed. The dog rolled out of its bed and walks over to them keeping a cautious eye on the new people. The dog walked up to the girls, Lulu, and Ringo. The dog was a large Rottweiler with a full tail and a thick black collar with silver spikes. The dog approached Ruby and the other members of team RWBY first, sniffing them curiously. “Mutton be nice. You girls don’t happen to have a dog do you? Mutton is always a little skittish around people he smells another dog on. “Well we have Zwei who lives with us and we spend a lot of time around Matt and his three dogs,” Weiss said as Mutton sniffed her. When the dog reached Blake, he popped back growling a bit. “What’s with him?” Blake asked. “You wouldn’t happen to be a Faunus would you? They tend to smell like other animals to him but look like humans so it confuses him,” Maroon said. “Cat, ears under the bow,” Lulu said bluntly. The dog moved to Ringo and reacted the same way he did with Blake but Ringo waved her tail around front of her and dangled it in front of the dog. As the tail wave side to side it seemed to calm the animal before Ringo offered him a hand. Mutton leaned his head into the hand calmly accepting her. Finally he moved onto Lulu. He sniffed her quickly before popping back, his back side up in a playful position and tail wagging before he tackle Lulu to the ground. “Mutton!” Cola called out in disbelief at the dog’s rash action thinking he was attacking. “He stop… cut it out slobber puss… come on,” Lulu said playfully trying to push the dog off as he licked her with his big wet tongue. “That’s odd. Mutton usually only acts like that when Narco comes home,” Cola said. “Lulu is Narco’s partner so it would make sense his sent would be all over her,” Ringo said. Lulu finally pushed the Rottweiler off, getting up on her knees and petted the animal as he sat in front of her. “So you’re the famous Mutton. Narco’s told me all about you,” Lulu said as she rubbed the dogs head. “Of course he tells his girlfriend about his life but not the rest of us,” Ringo said.  
                “Wait you’re the girl dating Narco?” Glaucia asked. “Yeah,” Lulu asked in a “so what?” tone. Glaucia pulled Lulu to her feet taking her hands shaking them as she said, “Oh its so nice to meet the girl Narco’s dating. I’ve always worried about him finding a nice girl.” “Nice? Try being a student in one of her classes, you’ll change that tune real quick,” Yang joked. “Yang,” Lulu said looking at her with a look that said, “keep talking, I dare you.” Cola came up and hugged the dog. “Sorry about Mutton, he can be a little defensive. Lulu stopped petting Mutton and the dog stood up with Cola still on his back so she was riding him like a horse.  
                They continued up some stairs along the back wall of the garage and they entered a large apartment. It had an open floor plan and the décor clearly said they were a family of car nuts. The main living room was full of furniture made out of chopped up car parts, couches made with the front ends of cars, tables made of stop signs and stacks of tires, decorative vintage gas pumps, and an entertainment unit made out of the back end of a hatch back. The kitchen was done in a red and white classic diner theming. “I finally see were Narco gets his taste in furnishing. “We’re Grizzles, we’re car people,” Kali said as she walked in followed by her twin. “Oh where are our manner’s? Dawlin why don’t we try and put together some coffee,” Cole suggested. After everyone had something to drink they all sat down in the den. “So why exactly did Narco come down here so suddenly?” Lulu asked. Cloe and Glaucia looked at each other before they looked back to the others. “You have to understand first, that Narco is incredibly protective of those he cares about,” Cole said. “He’s like Mutton,” Cola said sitting on the floor rubbing the big dogs back.

* * *

  
(The following jumps between The Grizzle family apartment, and the Blind to deliver the story from two sides. The change in scene will be marked by the word “jump” in the center)

                By now Matt and Narco had reached the Blind and Narco was looking his creation over. “Well at least you didn’t scratch it,” Narco said. “Narco would you just tell me what’s going on?” Matt asked. Narco sighed as he took out the little cigarette case he kept his chewing toothpicks in. He put a fresh toothpick in his mouth as he began.  
                                                                                                                             (Jump)  
                “A few weeks ago, a group of thugs calling themselves the Smash Punks came into town,” Cole said. “Deus Ex has its fair share of rough customers and gangs but they’re really more of just groups that hang out, well that and street race but they were never really violent,” Glaucia added. “Anyway as soon as they showed up they started shaking down small businesses across town for protection money. Including us,” Cole said. “We didn’t want any trouble so we decided to pay and for a few weeks it was fine. They weren’t too ridiculous and gave a semi-reasonable amount of leeway,” Glaucia said. “But then three days ago happened,” Maroon said.  
                                                                                                                             (Jump)  
                “Three days ago while we were in the hanger I got a call from little Cola. She calls to talk once a week but she was early and she sounded panicked. She said a bunch of scary men came and knocked things over in the shop saying something about Pops giving them money,” Narco said.  
                                                                                                                             (Jump)  
                “A few days ago a group of Smash Punks came to collect their money for the week,” Cole said. “Unfortunately we had to use it to order special parts for a car that I was working on for a client, but as soon as he picked up the car the next week we would have the money for them,” Glaucia said. “Pops tried to explain this to them but they weren’t happy,” Maroon added. “They knocked over a few display stands and said we would have to pay double when they came back in a few days,” Cole said.  
                                                                                                                             (Jump)  
                “From what Cola said I knew something was wrong. I had to protect my family so I took off,” Narco said.  
                                                                                                                             (Jump)  
“We figured we just pay up but then we realized Cola had panicked and called Narco,” Cole said. “But Narky can beat up any of those guys. I thought he could protect us,” Cola said in her defense. “It’s alright Cola sweaty. You were just scared and your brother always made you feel safe,” Glaucia said running her fingers through her daughter’s hair caringly.  
                                                                                                                          (Last Jump)  
                “I road all night and got to town. As soon as I was told that my family was being extorted. I started hunting for the Smash Punks with little luck. Then you guys showed up,” Narco said. “And you came within an inch of decapitating a human being,” Matt said disapprovingly. “Matt there’s a side of me you’ve never known. I wasn’t always the same friendly grease monkey you met during our first year,” Narco said. “What are you talking about? Your Juvenile record? I know about all that. It’s nothing,” Matt said. “Just drop it Matt,” Narco said. Suddenly the two of them heard something rustle. “What was that?” Matt asked. They heard it again and then again. They followed the sound to a compartment in the wall and opened it letting a pile of stuff fall out. “Oh for the love of…” the said in unison.  
                The Blind floated down into the empty lot next to the Grizzle family’s shop and home and everyone went out to see the amazing machine. “Wow wee. Narky built this whole thing?” Kali and Ceara asked in unison as the garage hatch opened. “Well me, Matt, Zaffre Steel helped a bit and there was a five million Lien grant from Beacon that helped,” their brother said stepping out. Matt had a somewhat disapproving look on his face. “Girls did any of you happen to sneak a little contraband along with you?” Matt asked the members of team RWBY. The girls were confused. “What are you talking about?” Ruby asked honestly confused by his meaning. Matt turned and whistled loudly. They heard barking and Zwei, Dax, Sarge, and Frostbite ran out, each of Matt’s dogs wearing their special dog backpacks with and dragged along the duffle bags their combat gear was in. They released their bags and circled the girls a few times before seeing Mutton and ran over to the Rottweiler to say hello. Mutton was cautious sniffing them and he and Sarge had a bit of a star down but he appeared to accept them. “What the dust? What are they doing here?” Ruby asked. “Oh come on Rosebud, we both know you have a history of trying to smuggle Zwei along with you on trips,” Matt said. “Yeah but you keep catching me in the act so I gave up,” Ruby said in her defense. “So then how did four dogs get into a storage compartment?” he asked. Dax trotted up to Matt and barked at him. “What is it boy?” Matt asked kneeling down to the dog. Dax walked over grabbing his bag in his mouth and dragged it over to the compartment he and the other dogs had hidden in. He spun around building momentum and threw his bag in before jumping in himself. Matt took a minute to process before he realized what the dog was trying to tell him. “Wait you guys smuggled yourselves aboard?” Matt asked the animal. Dax barked nodding before walking back with his bag. Matt scratched his forehead, “How do I keep forgetting these guys are smarter than the average dogs.”  
                As everyone was talking Narco caught a whiff of something in the air. “Something smells like meat,” he said. Ruby and Yang caught the same smell. “Yeah it smells like one of your barbeques,” Yang said to Narco. Ruby was just starting to drool at the delicious sent. Oh dear the grill,” Glaucia said as she scurried back inside and up the stairs. Everyone followed her up through the home and up to the roof. There they found a patio of sort with a roof to block out rain more furniture made of scrap, a couple of hammocks, an old TV, and strings of lights hanging. Off to the side was an extensive brickwork outdoor kitchen with counter space, multiple barbeques, a large roaster and a large smoker which Glaucia was tending to. Narco started to drool. “Mama-que,” he moaned as he walked towards the kitchen as if he was being pulled by the scent. Narco was about to open the smoker to see what was inside but Glaucia took his hand pulling him back. “ah, ah, ah sonny, dinner will be ready in a few minutes. If you want to speed things up go grab the sides from the kitchen downstairs,” she said. Narco got the point and dove into a shadow. Matt, Ringo, and Lulu lined up leaning over the counter smelling the food. “Finally, we get to sample the legendary Mama Grizzle cooking,” Matt said. “Legendary, I don’t know about that,” Glaucia chuckled. “You’re kidding?” Ringo asked sarcastically. “The way Narco talks about his Mama’s cooking you’d think it was made of pure gold and could cure all disease it’s so good,” Lulu added. “Narco’s good but he says you’re the best,” Matt said. Narco backed out of a shadow pulling a cart of side dishes, macaroni, coleslaw, baked beans, corn bread, and French fries. Everyone lined up with plates looking forward to the meal. “It’s a good thing I always cook in bulk,” Glaucia said as she opened the smoker and roasters pulling out pork, chicken, and beef by the pound.  
                Between team MRLN, team RWBY, and the other six members of the Grizzle family the food did not last long. They talked getting to know each other as they ate and when they were done everyone leaned back rubbing their stomachs for eating too much. “Oh dust, Mama Grizzle you are truly the queen of barbeque,” Yang said. “Yeah Narco is good but you are great,” Ruby added. “Indeed,” Weiss added before letting out a loud unladylike burp. She put her hand to her mouth blushing. “Thank you girls,” Glaucia said.  
“Alright so what are we going to do about these Smash Punks?” Matt asked as he put his feet up and picked at some meat in his teeth. “What are you talking about?” Narco asked. “Narco we need you back at Beacon and you clearly aren’t coming back as long as these thugs are around you won’t leave, so come on what are we going to do?” Matt asked. “I have no clue Matt. I wasn’t exactly thinking when I rode out here,” Narco said. “Yeah I figured that when you took off without a word,” Matt said. “You aren’t considering going after those thugs?” Cole asked. “We’ve dealt with far worse than a group of street thugs,” Lulu said. “Yeah I want to give these guys a clipping,” Ringo said. She was sitting on one of the couches on the roof with little Cola laying in her lap falling asleep as Ringo stroked her hair. “Maybe we should put this on the workbench for the night and come back to it tomorrow. We all seem tired after today’s ordeal,” Cole said as he walked over to Ringo. He picked up his youngest daughter from Ringo’s lap cradling the girl. “I think I better put this one down,” Cole said as he carried his youngest downstairs to put her to bed. “Oh dust I completely forgot about how we’re going to put you all up for the night,” Glaucia said. “Don’t worry Ma that monstrosity we parked next door is designed to sleep twenty, we’ll be fine,” Narco said.  
                The next morning the members of teams MRLN and RWBY were woken by the sound of a banging on the front hatch. “Hey guys wake up! Breakfast is ready,” they could hear Kali calling from outside. The eight of them rolled out of their beds and went inside the Grizzle family’s apartment joining the family for breakfast. After eating Glaucia and Maroon left to work in the garage while Cole went to man the store with Cola, Kali, and Ceara. The huntsmen and students sat in the Grizzle family’s living room debating how they would proceed. “So how are we going stop these guys?” Ruby asked. “Well first we got to find them,” Lulu said as she cleaned her sunglasses. “Narco this is your town, how do you find out about the dark side of it?” she asked. “Lulu pretty much the whole city is dark. Deus Ex is an industrial underworld with illegal activity all over the place and a police force ill-equipped to deal with it. You can hear about something shady just by sticking your head out the window,” he said. “Well do you know where people hang out? Don’t you have anyone that owes you a favor?” Yang asked. “Not anymore, people have a code around here about favors. If you screw someone over all previous favors are null and void,” Narco said. “You screwed someone? Who?” Lulu asked looking at her boyfriend. “I don’t want to talk about it. Look when I left I burned a lot of bridges. No one owes me anything in town,” he said. “But it’s still the same town right don’t you know how it runs,” Blake argued. Narco leaned back on the couch thinking. “There’s only one thing in this town that never changes but we’re going to need an in,” Narco said as he stood up and walked downstairs followed by the others.  
                Down in the shop Cole was taking stock of the shelves with Cola and Kali and Ceara were stocking shelves. “Hey Pops how’s the street racing scene been since I left?” Narco asked his father. “Narco I left that life a long time ago,” Cole said. “Street racing?” Weiss asked. “Street racing is the life blood of Deus Ex. It’s the one thing that links people from all walks of life here. It’s also how my parents met,” Narco said. “It’s also how I almost got myself killed when you were a kid and your mother and I left that world. Heck it almost got you killed,” Cole said. “We got to start somewhere if we’re going to take down the Smash Punks and a street race is the best place to find information, so come on,” Narco said. “Isn’t street racing illegal?” Blake asked. “Technically, but in Deus Ex the cops usually don’t care. These guys will block off public roads or hijack abandoned industrial complexes or sections of highway. Luckily they block off roads instead of racing on active roads. I used to run a racing crew called the Welders when I was young, and we were some of the best in town,” Narco said. “I’m telling you son I don’t know. We get a couple of racers in every once and a while looking for parts but I don’t ask questions,” Cole said.  
                While Narco and his father were talking, Matt noticed Kali and Ceara trying to slink away guiltily trying not to be noticed. Matt bolted around Narco and Cole and cut off the girls’ escape startling them. “Where are you two sneaking off to?” he asked leaning down to look them in the eyes. The girls had terrible poker faces and just turned to run but as they tried to blow past their older brother Narco grabbed them by the collars of their hoodies holding them off the ground. “And where do you think you’re going?” he said as the two tried to look away. “Oh just going to get more sparkplugs,” Kali said. “uh ha, now do you want to tell me truth now?” he asked. “Well,” Kali said trying to avoid answering. Narco looked at Ceara and she cracked easily. “We’ve been sneaking out to the races at night,” she said. “Ceara!” Kali chided. “You girls have been sneaking out at night?” Cole asked disappointed. “Girls you know the family rule, until you can drive you can’t go to the races,” Narco said. “How do you girls even find out where to go?” Cole asked. Kali looked to her sister with a look in her eye that said, “Don’t say a word,” but then Ceara looked Narco in the eyes and cracked. “Our friend Toffee from school, her brother races all the time and she finds out from him,” she said. “Alright I’ll make you a deal, I’ll let you two off the hook but you got to tell us when the latest action is,” Narco said. The twins looked at each and swung themselves closer together to whisper into each other’s ears debating what they would do. “Tomorrow night,” Kali said. “Where?” their older brother asked. “They’re meeting at the abandon factory complex on the east edge of town. But the race will go out of there,” Kali said. “What kind of race is it?” he asked. “A Remnant Gauntlet, starting in the factory complex before moving out and up to the curving roads on the side Mount Slate before taking a, then down into town. They’ll run through the streets of Hill Town. Then they’ll move onto the abandoned stretch of highway on the outside of town and over the old draw bridge finishing at the gate at the complex they started from,” Kali said. “Oh no,” Narco said as his grip started to loosen. The twins wormed their way out of Narco’s grip but as they started to run off Cole grabbed them again locking their necks under his arms. “Hey I thought we were off the hook,” Kali said. “You’re off the hook with your brother, not with me,” Cole said tightening his grip on the girls.  
                Narco ran his fingers through his hair as he paced a bit. “Narco what’s a Remnant Gauntlet?” Ruby asked. “The ultimate test of street racing, it combines all the major street racing styles of Remnant, straight drag racing from Vacuo’s salt flats, Mistral style drift racing, Atlas style down hill racing, and Vale city factory slalom. It tests every skill a street racing can have,” Narco explained as he leaned back against a wall and slid down it till he was sitting. “So what’s the deal? The fact the race is a Remnant Gauntlet seems to be messing with you,” Weiss said. “One of the reasons I chose to leave town and become a huntsman was my last race. Me and the Welders had been on the scene for about a year and we were at the top of the world but then that race happened. It was a Remnant Gauntlet, I had run all the different types of races before, I had won them plenty of times but I had never run a full gauntlet. I was doing amazing. I held the lead for most of the race but on the last stretch one of the other drivers bumped my back bumper and through me off balance. I spun out and totaled my car,” Narco said. “Holy dust Narco,” Lulu said actually showing compassion. She sat down next to him and pulled his head sideways so it was laying on her shoulder. “The car jackknifed and flew off the ground rolling down the track as the other passed me before slamming into a concrete pylon,” he said. “How did you survive that?” Yang said. “Luckily I had found my semblance by then. I was able to drop into my own shadow. Unfortunately back them I didn’t have control of how fast I came out of shadows. Today I can jump off a five-story building into a shadow and then come out of another at the speed of a brisk walk. But back then I came out at the speed I went in and I was going at fifty or so miles an hour. Luckily I flew into a huge pile of old bubble wrap left over from when the factory the race was in was abandoned. I got out with only a few cuts and bruises but I never raced again. Then after a few other things then after a few other things and the next month I took the Beacon Academy entrance exam,” Narco said.  
                “So don’t race,” Blake said. “I have to. If we want any information we need to get respect and my reputation is nowhere near what we need,” Narco said. “Then have Matt drive he’s got Eligos,” Weiss said. “Matt knows how to drive in a fight but as we say in my family I don’t think he’s got to plugs to win. He could probably make the top five but not win,” Narco said. He took a deep breath in and out before drumming his knees and got to his feet. “No I’ll have to drive. I can do it. I haven’t been in an actual race in a while but I’ve kept my skills up. I think I can do it. The problem is I’m going to need a car,” Narco said. “Can’t you drive Matt’s?” Ruby asked. “No I need a car with the right feel. I need a car I know how to drive, a car that handles just right, a car that I’m used to, and most importantly I need a car with the right hardware,” Narco said. “Pops do you think Ma would lend me one of the cars she’s working on?” Narco said. Cole gritted his teeth, “Well actually I think we might have the perfect thing for you.” He let go of the twins giving them both a chastising smack upside the head and gave them a look that this wasn’t over before they scurried off.  
                Everyone followed Cole into the garage where Maroon was waist deep in a car engine and Glaucia was under it on a dolly. Cole walked up to his wife tapped the dolly with his foot and she rolled from under the car a wrench in her mouth and a head lamp on her head. She took the wrench out of her mouth asking, “What’s up Cole?” “Where’s the Beast?” he asked. “Storage lift number two why?” she asked but then she looked at Narco and got the idea. “Oh no sweetie you’re not going to race, again are you?” she asked as she popped up to her feet and took Narco by the shoulders. “I got to Ma, if we want to stop these people I need to race,” Narco said. Glaucia didn’t like the idea but she understood. “Alright,” she said showing them to the car storage lifts and lowered a car from the ceiling into view. It looked like 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. Narco looked the car over it was unpainted, the doors and hood were missing, it had no top and parts of the interior were incomplete but it but it was a car. “Pops is this what I think it is?” Narco said. “Your old Patch Sturgeon,” Glaucia said. “This is the car I wrecked that day but I left it where it landed and never looked back. “Your father went out and collected it after race and after you left for Beacon we started putting it back together in our spare time but never got around to finishing,” Glaucia said. Narco walked around the car looking it over. “What were you going for, factory original or my old custom design?” Narco asked. “Actually I kind of started building something for myself,” Maroon said. I was going to turn it into a convertible.” “What other changes did you make?” Narco asked as he leaned into the engine. “Well I changed some of the parts in the interior, new computerized fuel injectors, I shrunk the air intake, and completely replaced the galvanized steel with an hollow aluminum one,” she said. “You what?!” Narco yelled as he hit his head in the engine. He pulled himself out. “Are you crazy? You can’t use a hollow aluminum frame on a Sturgeon, the engine’s too heavy, it would crack in half as soon as it hit forty,” Narco said. “Ma does this mean I’m losing my pet project?” Maroon asked. “It’s technically your brother’s car, and he’s going to need it to get rid of those Smash Punks,” Glaucia said.  
Narco walked over to a dusty that look like it hadn’t been touched in a decade. Narco turned on a lamp and the girls could see an engraved metal name plate with his name on it. “Dust, I haven’t looked at this old bench in years,” he said as he pulled a binder down from the upper shelf opening it as he walked back. “What’s that Narco?” Yang asked as she come up and looking over his shoulder. “My binder of dream projects. The sturgeon was always my dream car but I never did get a chance to make it perfect. Couldn’t afford the right parts at the time but as long as we’re practically starting from scratch we may as well make her perfect. That and this finally gives me a chance to try building a little something special I’ve been toying with for a while,” Narco said. “What something special?” Matt asked. Narco just chuckled deviously under his breath. “Alright we got to replace the chassis, find a new top and hood, install new nitro system, and replace those fancy injectors with old fashioned ones… Actually now that I think about it we are going to have to take the engine apart and tear it apart to integrate something special I’ve been wanting to build, interior work, tuning…” Narco turned the page and turned to book sideways, “and paint.” “Why do you need old injectors?” Maroon asked. “I need the old injectors or the car will feel funny. “Well the twins can do the painting while we do the frame work, they’ve been practicing,” Cole said. “Are they any good? I can’t have amateur work on it. Appearance is half the battle,” Narco said. “See that one over there?” Cole asked pointing at a sports car with a complex flame paint job. “Alright they can do it. Mom I need you to work on the frame, I’ll do the engine myself. Dad I need you to search up some parts,” Narco said. “Can we help?’ Yang asked. “You girls need to go shopping for outfits,” Narco said. “Excuse me?” Weiss said in disbelief. “You girls would stick out like a semi-truck in a field of bicycles. You guys need to look the part. Matt could pull it off maybe Yang. Lulu could just throw on a leather jacket, but Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Ringo would stick out. You guys need to get some new clothes to fit the part. If we are going to build a reputation we are going to need a crew,” Narco said. He turned to his father, “Is Goldie still running that shop a few blocks over?” he asked. “Yeah,” Cole said. “Good, Maroon take them over and get the girls into something more appropriate, oh and see if Goldie can touch up their hair a bit too,” he said. “Wait what about our hair?” Weiss asked disapprovingly. “What are you thinking?” the eldest Grizzle sister asked. “eh, get Ringo blue highlights, get a purple streak in Yang’s bangs, and get end of Weiss’s ponytail dyed, go with black or blue. Oh and get a pile of welding goggles,” Narco said. “What are the goggles for?” Ruby asked. “Every racing crew has its mark. Some all wear the same outfit, some all wear jerseys, some even get matching tattoos. For the Welders we all wore welding goggles somewhere on us, whether on our heads, around our necks, or tied around our arms,” Narco said. “Wait go back to the hair thing,” Weiss said. “Come on let’s go,” Maroon said. “But, but, but,” Weiss started to protest but Maroon, Ringo and Lulu started herding the girls out before she could. Narco kept flipping through the binder before stopping. “Pops is Stringer’s still open over on Twelfth Street?” Narco asked. “Yeah son,” Cole said. “Perfect, Cola!” Narco called out. He wrote down a quick list on a pad before tearing it off. Cola scurried in, “yes Narky.” “Take this over Stringer’s and have him fill the order. Tell him to bill it to the address on the bottom,” Narco said handing her the paper. “Right Narky,” Cola said before see put her fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly. Mutton woke from his nap in his bed in the back of the garage and trotted over to Cola. The girl climbed onto the back of the dog and ordered, “Stringer’s Mutton, charged.” The dog under stood and took off out of the garage and around the corner with Cola clinging to his back. “What’s Stringer’s?’ Matt asked. “They sell music and audio gear,” Narco said. “What’s that for?” the leader of team MRLN asked. “showmanship, shouldn’t you have gone with the girls?” Narco asked. “Nah, I got a black leather jacket in Eligos, Let’s get to work on this monster,” Matt said and they went to work on Narco’s car. They had just over twenty-four hours to turn a pile of parts into a winning street racing car.  
                Matt, Narco, and the Grizzles worked through the night on the car. Around noon the next day team RWBY, Ringo, and Lulu came down to the garage to see how it was coming. The two were working hard. The frame was done and the engine, axles and drive shaft were in place. All they were waiting for was the shell and interior. “How’s the car coming guys?” Ruby asked. Matt rolled out from under the car on a dolly and Narco pulled himself out of the engine. “I wish we had another week,” Matt said before rolling back under the car. “We’ll make it Matt,” Narco said. “So did you guys take care of your shopping?” Narco asked. “I still don’t like the dye job,” Weiss said holding up the end of her ponytail that was now black. “I don’t know, I kind of like mine,” Yang said looking at her new purple bang in the reflection in a hub cap. “I think we’ll blend in Narco,” Ringo said. “That reminds me, you’ll need road names,” Narco said. “Road names?” Ruby asked. “No one at a street race uses their real name, they all have road names. They used to call me Wrench,” Narco said. “So what, we pick something?” Blake asked. “No a road name is usually given to you by someone else so,” Narco started as he leaned against a tool chest thinking. “Ruby let’s go with Rosebud, Weiss I think Ice Queen would go over well.” “Hey,” Weiss protested. “Blake lets go with Shadow, Yang Firecracker, Ringo let’s go with,” Narco paused to think. Matt rolled out from under the car quickly to suggest “Stems,” before retreating under the car again. “That works, and Lulu, how about Boom Boom?” Narco said. “Works for me,” Lulu said.  
                As long as I got you here I should probably tell you about what we will be walking into tonight. Matt let’s take a break,” Narco said. The girls pulled up some tires to sit on while Matt and Narco leaned against the car. “First of all you need to understand these can potentially be some rough people. They tend to be suspicious so you need to be careful when fishing for information,” Narco said. “Remember what I taught you during your classes on information gathering. Use the passive technique and just listen. When you hear people talking about something relevant do your best to listen but don’t be obvious. If they think you’re spying on them they can do anything from stop talking to attacking you. Don’t ask questions either, just listen and the conversation might move in the right direction to answer them. If you are sure someone knows something but they don’t say anything find Narco, Ringo, Lulu, or myself and let us take it from there,” Matt said. “Right, also you need to be careful around some of these people, chances are some of them may find you attractive and will hit on you. Normally I’d say just walk away but we have an image we’re going for so you’re going to have to respond differently,” Narco said. “How?” Ruby asked. “The way Yang deals with Junior Xiong,” Matt said. The girls got the idea. “Step on their toes and play coy, give them a good gut punch, sweep their legs out from under them, or do what Yang does to Junior,” Lulu said. Matt and Narco shivered. “What exactly is the image we are going for?” Blake asked. “Intimidating and far more trouble than we look,” Narco said. “Look tonight you are going to see a side of me I haven’t let people see in nearly eight years. I will seem cruel, rude, arrogant, and plain unfriendly. Just remember That’s not me anymore,” Narco said.  
                “Narco I’ve been meaning to ask what are the details on a Remnant Gauntlet?” Matt asked. “A Remnant Gauntlet is broken up into four legs, each based on a type of street racing popular in each of the four kingdoms. The first leg is a warehouse run, which is a race through an open warehouse full of obstacles from one side to another. This kind of race started in the kingdom of Vale where they had plenty of empty large buildings. It’s about keeping speed while having a good reaction time to dodge obstacles. From there the race will exit the factory complex and up into the winding curving roads carved out of the nearby mountain side for a drift race. These roads have very sharp turns like those outside of the major cities in Mistral that were built into the sides of seaside cliffs. On these turns the only way to keep up your speed and stay ahead of the others is to drift through the turns and if you mess up you’ll go flying off the side of the mountain. From their they move into a section of road they close off for an Atlas drop race. The road is a pretty steep downhill and levels out at intersections. This kind of race started in Atlas and they ran these races on ski slopes. The last leg is a Vacuo style sprint. In Vacuo they have salt flats where they can really open up their engines and hit top speeds. We’ll pull onto a section of abandoned highway and max our engines speeding a mile and a half back to the factory complex and the finish,” Narco said. “Sounds crazy,” Weiss said. “Well call us crazy,” Narco said. “Narco the paint’s done,” the twins called out and Narco left to check their work.  
                That evening the car was finished and they prepared to leave for the races. They changed into their racer outfits and got ready to go. Narco was leaning against the wall twirling a wrench in his fingers trying to calm himself. “Nervous son?” Cole asked coming up to his son. “First race in eight years, just trying to get focused,” Narco said. “Take this,” Cole said handing his son a small box. “What’s this?” Narco asked. “Just don’t open it until the race,” Cole said before walking off. “Come on Narco!” Matt called out. Ringo, Lulu, and Yang mounted their bikes, Weiss, Blake, and Ruby climbed into the Eligos with Matt, and Narco got into his newly built car sitting in the shadows the garage. “Alright, let’s get it in gear,” Narco said as he turned the keys and the car roared to life.

* * *

     

                The sun had gone down as cars began to flock to the abandoned factory complex. It was a lively gathering of car crazed racers. People were showing off their cars with their hoods open to display the engines and had oversized sound systems. There were all kinds of racing crews. The Suits who all wore black suits and ties, the Street Coons with a raccoon tail hanging off each of their belts, the Gatos de Camino who wore tiger striped jackets and had a cat Faunus leader, the Gasser who wore gas masks, and the Road Bandits in their cowboy hats.  
                “Woah Shift, you get some upgrades on this thing?” one of the racers asked another looking at the man’s car. “Yeah I got some a new intake system. Hey did you hear the rumor. They said there’s a monster in town,” the first racer said. “Please,” one of the Suits said in an as if tone. “You mean that rumor that some of the Smash Punks got the Dust beat out of them? Twenty Lien says that guys already dead.” “I heard whoever the guy is he used to live here in town but left years ago,” another racer said. “The suit’s right, the guy’s probably dead already,” a Gasser said from behind his gasmask.  
Suddenly a pair of cars and three motorcycles rolled into the complex. Leading the Pack was Narco’s car. Now complete it had a gunmetal paint job with black detailing on the back end sides, a black top, small spoiler, a slatted rear windshield, vents on the sides of the front, a raise air intake vent in the hood, and a license plate that read “BEASTLY”. Following Narco was Matt’s Eligos and then Ringo, Lulu, and Yang on their bikes. As they pulled in Narco flipped a switch and the trunk opened up revealing a huge sound system that started blaring one of his favorite songs (Pedal to the Metal by Kazzer). When the song ended one of the Suits walked up to Narco’s window and knocked on it. The window rolled down and the Suit said, “Yo pal, this is a private gathering, locals only. So why don’t you roll along out of here new guy?” Without warning a gloved hand flew out punching the Suit in the face sending him flying. The crowd watched as the well-dressed racer flew away before looking back to the car. The door opened revealing the cars black and grey interior with a custom skull chewing on a wrench steering wheel and Narco stepped out leaning over the door. “Who you calling new guy? I am the definition of local,” Narco said. People started to whisper to each other in disbelief at the sight of Narco. “Narco Grizzle,” one said. “I thought he died,” another said. “I heard he left town,” said yet another.  
                “Yo Wrench!” a racer called out a young man as he ran up to Narco. He had a swarthy complexion with black hair and a goatee. He wore a black and red basketball jersey with the number seven on it under an open red hoodie, black pants, red sneakers, and a red beanie. “Skid long time no see,” Narco said as he shook the guy’s hand before pulling him in for a quick bro hug. “It’s been forever man you just vanished after that last race where you wrecked, what the dust happened to you?” Skid asked. “After that wreck the Welders had a falling out and we took our own roads. I ended up getting a new car a decided to race across Remnant from here to Mistral,” Narco said. “Well looks like we have a real ghost in our presence,” said one of the Suits as he stepped up to Narco toying with his cuff links. He had dark skin and short black hair. He wore black thick framed rectangular sun glasses, a white dress shirt, a fitted black suit with the jacket closed, silver cuff links, and black dress shoes. “Hey Links still living in the shadow of your boss?” Narco asked jokingly. “Not anymore, I run the Suits now,” Links said. “Yeah after he disappeared,” said one of the Street Coons, their leader. He had black hair under a black flat brim ball cap. He wore a black and grey horizontal striped shirt under a black half zipped hoodie, dark jeans, a black belt with a raccoon tail charm hanging from it, and black and white sneakers. “Ringtail, at least you’re still on top,” Narco said. “He’s not the only one,” a man in a gasmask said his voice muffled by the mask. His gas mask was black with two filter cartridges on either side of the lower face and tinted eye lenses. He wore a black shirt under an open dark green hooded field jacket with the hood up over his head, dark grey cargo pants, and black boots. “Tox, when you ever going to show us that ugly mug of your’s?” Narco asked the leader of the Gassers. “The day I die,” Tox said. “Well at least you still have that same handsome mug,” a female Faunus with a tiger tail and long orange hair said in a Hispanic accent. She wore a purple crop top, a black choker with a tiger claw hanging from it, fitted leather Capri pants with purple tiger stripes on the thighs, purple heeled sandals, a slacked white leather belt, and a tiger print jacket with a lighter yellowish orange fur collar and cuffs. She gently took Narco by the face and tried to kiss him. However, fearing Lulu’s temper Narco put his hand up catching the Faunus’s lips and guided them away. “Nice to see you haven’t change Tigre,” Narco said to the leader of the Gatos de Camino. “She’ll never change aye Wrench,” a racer in a tan cowboy hat said. In addition to the hat he had brown hair and wore a red and black plaid flannel shirt under a brown leather jacket with a tan fleece collar, blue jeans, and brown boots. “Mustang, still stealing parts like the bandit you are?” Narco asked jokingly. “Only from the cars I wreck,” the leader of the Road Bandits said.  
                “So what have you been up to Wrench? After that wreck you got in, you and all the Welders vanished,” Skid asked. “Me and the other Welders had a falling out of sorts. Then I got in that wreck and I just decided I needed a change,” Narco said. “So you just left racing?” Tigre asked. “No I started racing in other races across Remnant, sprints in Vacuo, downhill runs in Atlas, even drift run on the cliff roads of Mistral,” Narco said. “And these guys?” Links asked gesturing to Narco’s group. Narco knocked out a pattern on the roof of his car. Matt and the girls in his car climbed out while Yang, Ringo, and Lulu removed their helmets.  
                Matt was dressed in a black shirt, dark blue jeans, black leather boots with straps, and a set of welding goggles around his neck. In addition he wore an open black leather jacket with a thick green stripe down the side chest with silver stripes on each side, the same stripe combination down the outer sleeve, and two stripes around each upper sleeve one green, one silver. Under his jacket was a half zipped up green hoodie with the hood up. Ringo had had blue highlights dyed into her hair and wore a closed fitted black leather jacket, blue skinny jeans, and black ankle boots. Lulu’s outfit consisted of her usual sunglasses and beret along with a short sleeve with a purple tank top with a few holes, black cargo pants, black ankle combat boots, a purple belt, and an open leather jacket with a purple stripe across the chest and one the shoulders down the outer sleeve. Ruby wore a white t-shirt with a black cross design like the ones that clip on her cloak, an open black leather jacket, a red black and white plaid skirt, black stockings, her normal boots, her cloak clipped over her shoulders, and a pair of welding goggles and her headphones around her neck. Weiss wore a black leather jacket, a denim skirt, black shin high leather boots, welding goggles around her neck, the crown that she usually wore around the base of her ponytail was replaced with a black leather band with silver studs, and the tip of her ponytail was dyed black. Blake had on a black midriff top under an open white leather jacket with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, black skinny jeans, black heeled calf high boots, black ribbons wrapped around her forearms, a pair of welding tied around her upper arm, and a black beanie on her head hiding her cat ears. Finally Yang wore a yellow midriff halter top cut above her belly button, a black cropped leather jacket, black shorts, her usual brown knee high boots with her normal orange socks of different lengths and grey bandana tied around the top of her left boot, a black leather back skirt similar to her normal one attached to a brown belt, welding goggles around her neck, and one of her bangs was dyed purple.  
                “My new Welders, been gathering them from all over Remnant,” Narco said. Narco pointed towards Ruby, “This is Rosebud,” he moved to Weiss, “Ice Queen,” moved to Blake, “Shadow,” he pointed to Yang, “Fire Cracker”, Ringo, “Stems,” Lulu “Boom Boom,” finally Matt, “and my right hand Reaper,” Narco said introducing his crew. “Well hello Boom Boom,” Mustang said slipping up behind Lulu trying to slip his hands around her hips coming onto her. Lulu chuckled to herself as she stomped her heel down on his toes and Mustang’s eye went wide as he hopped back on one foot holding his toe. Narco laughed a little as Lulu slipped under his arm. “That’s my girl,” Narco said as he gave Lulu a quick kiss. “I probably should have warned you. Lulu’s my girl and Stems in Reaper’s. So I’d lay off if I were you,” Narco said. “Now he tells me,” Mustang said as he held his toes. “Well then I assume this one is still available aye Blondie,” one of the Street Coons coming up behind Yang. Yang turned to him smiling, “Its Firecracker,” she said. “Of course…” she grabbed the racer by the crotch and his eyes went wide “That’s not the only thing I’ve been known to crack,” she finished before releasing him. “You should tell your boys to lay off the girls. There are quite a few men in pain out there who tried to hit on them,” Matt said. The leaders of the other crews signaled to their crews to head Matt’s words. “Well Wrench is a local so I guess their welcome. Any opposed?” Links asked but no one said anything. Teams RWBY and MRLN were in and they split up to collect information in pairs, Ruby with Weiss, Blake with Yang, Ringo with Matt, and Narco with Lulu.  
                Ruby and Weiss were walking about pretending to be interested in the cars as they listened to the people talk when they overheard a couple of racers talking. “I heard the Smash Punks have been knuckling down,” one said. “Yeah they’ve started demanding more money out of the businesses on the north end,” the other said. “Maybe that’s where they’ve been hiding out. No one’s been able to find out where they meet just that they show up,” said the first. The two girls looked at each other before moving on.  
Yang and Blake had stopped to look at a car engine. “Wow what you got in here a C34-D?” Yang asked the car’s owner. “Yeah total five hundred horsepower,” the car’s owner said. “Wait I thought the C34-D was supposed to have seven hundred and fifty horses minimum,” Yang said. “Yeah if you have the right injectors, but the Smash Punks have been nabbing up all the good parts in town,” the Car’s owner said. Interesting, Blake thought to herself.  
                Narco, Matt, Ringo, and Lulu were sitting on some crates with the other crew leaders talking over drinks. “So what’s been going on since I left town?” Narco asked. The other Crew leaders looked at each other before turning back and saying, “The Smash Punks Happened.” “They used to be some petty thugs but some new leader showed up a few months ago and turned them around,” Tox said. “Yeah whoever this new boss of theirs is they turned the Smash Punks into a real force,” Mustang added. “Out of the blue they showed up at one of our meets with maybe two dozen cars and demanded to race, including their boss,” Links said. “What’s the boss like?” Narco asked. “No clue. Es misterioso, they never got out of their car and spoke through one of their lieutenants. We don’t even know if it’s a man or a woman,” Tigre said. “They challenged us to a race. Every cent they had against our loyalty, and we accepted. If we won our crews would have split several million Lien in cars and cash,” Links said. “And we lost,” Ringtail added. After that we never saw the boss again and we have to pay them tribute every week out of our winnings,” said Tigre. “They sound like a bunch of thugs, why surrender? What happened to the racing crews that no one dared to mess with not even the cops?” Narco said. “We can’t, the Smash Punks out number all the crews and racers put together two to one and they actually know how to fight,” Mustang said. “No they don’t,” Matt thought to himself.  
                Just then a group of punk rock styled muscle cars and hot rods pulled in parking and several Smash Punks climbed out. The crew leaders got up to go greet them. Matt tapped the ear piece in his ear and signaled the others, “alright girls stick to the shadows and crowds. We don’t know if any of these guys could recognize us. Let Narco take the lead.” The girls understood and retreated back to avoid the Smash Punks.  
                One of the Smash Punks stepped forward, assumedly the leader of this group, possibly a lieutenant. He had a high spiked red mohawk and wore a red tank top, a black leather jacket with the sleeves torn of and silver studs, black leather pants, a black belt with silver studs, black boots, and black leather bands around his wrists and tattoos all over his arms. “Hawk, always a pleasure,” Links said holding his hand out to shake. Hawk slapped the hand away. “I don’t want your hospitality; I want to race. We’re running a Remnant Gauntlet,” Hawk said. “Wait,” they heard someone call out and Narco pushed his way to the front of the crowd and looked hawk in the eye. “What’s the buy in?” Narco asked. “Wrench, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Skid said meekly behind Narco. “And who the dust are you?” Hawk demanded. “Wrench, leader of the Welders. I’ve been out of town for a while but I’m back and I’m here to race,” Narco said imposingly. “You got a lot of nerve pal,” one of the Smash Punks said as he took a step about to attack Narco but Hawk held out a hand to stop him. “And your boss here has a lot of Ugly,” Narco said insulting Hawk. This infuriated Hawk and he charged at Narco. As Hawk closed in Narco dropped into his own shadow flying up out of Hawks shadow behind him and delivered a flying spin kick to Hawk knocking him to the ground before jumping on top of him and beat Hawk’s face till it bled. Ruby and the girl watched from the crowd in disgust as they saw their sweet friend beat a man bloody. Narco got off of Hawk who scurried to his feet. “You’re going to pay for that,” Hawk threatened. “Then do it on the road. I’ll asked again, what’s the buy in?” Narco asked. Hawk huffed agreeing and Skid said, “fifty thousand a car.” “Reaper!” Narco called out as he wiped Hawk’s blood off his gloves on his pants. Matt stepped forward with a metal briefcase. He held it up and opened it to reveal bonded together bundles of Lien. “This should cover the Wrench and me,” Matt said in a ruff voice similar to the one he used when the girls met him during their first combat class with him. “Skid holds the pot,” Narco said. They agreed as Matt closed the briefcase and handed it Skid. The other’s agreed and left their buy ins with Skid. “Race starts in fifteen minutes, if you’re not on the line when the flag drops you don’t race,” Hawk said begrudgingly.  
                The racers all split up to tend to their cars. Teams RWBY and MRLN congregated to plan. “Alright, Matt and I will race. Matt do your best to stick close and keep your com open. Everyone else try not to be noticed and collect information,” Narco said and they broke. After Narco had left to tend to his car Matt grabbed Ruby and Ringo and the others besides Narco pulling them over to his car. “What’s up Matt?” Ruby whispered. Matt popped his trunk open. “Your weapons are in the trunk. Ruby, Ringo I want you to load some clips with delay burst lightning dust rounds, the rest of you take your weapons and lay low,” He said. “What for?” Ruby asked. “A little insurance. I don’t trust these Smash Punks. There’s a smoke stack on top of the next building. I want you and Ringo to take your weapons, scale the stack and set up in sniping positions. During the race I want you to follow along through your scopes and be ready to fire those rounds on any car I tell you to. On impact these rounds should short out their engines and leave no trace,” Matt said. “How are we supposed to track them in the dark at that distance?” Ringo asked. There are some scope attachments in there too for night vision and a heads up display. While Yang and Blake were walking around the cars, I had them plant beacons under to front bumpers of the cars racing. They’ll show you where the other cars are no hurry up,” Matt said. Ringo and Ruby grabbed their gear and snuck away while Matt went to work tuning his engine.  
                “As Narco was tuning his engine Skid came up to talk to him, “Yo Wrench, you sure about this? I mean your last gauntlet didn’t end so well.” “Its fine Skid. I’m not the same rough kid I was back then,” Narco said. “Nowhere close to that guy,” he then muttered under his breath. “Well what about this other guy you’re driving with, you trust him? I mean he doesn’t quite seem like the original Welders,” Skid asked. “Relax Skid, I trust Reaper with my life,” Narco said to calm his old friend. “Where’d you find these people anyway?” Skid asked. “You don’t want to know,” Narco said.  
                When all was said and done the cars lined up at the starting line. The lineup started with Narco and his Beast followed by Matt in Eligos. Next to them was Ringtail in his car designed similar to a Nissan Skyline painted black with grey stripes along the sides. Next was Tox in his car designed like a 1970 dodge charger painted dark green with an artistic paint job making it appear as if grey smoke flowed across the car’s body. Following him was Tigre in her 1982 Corvette style car painted orange with black tiger stripes. After her was Links in his car similar to a 1967 Cadillac DeVille painted black. After him was Mustang in of course a car based on the 1970 Mustang painted red with two black stripes up the middle of the top. Lastly was Hawk in his hotrod based off a 1932 ford, black with flames fading from red at the front to orange and yellow at the tips of the flames and a supercharger sticking out of the hood. Along with Hawk he had six other Smash Punks in punk rock hotrods. “Well that’s not fair,” Narco said. “These punks seem to make the rules. I guess we’ll just have to play around them,” Matt said over the com.  
                A young woman walk out onto a metal bridge built between the two buildings on either side of the road ahead of the racers. “Alright boys and girls you all know the rules of a Remnant Gauntlet. One lap around the course, first to cross the finish line wins,” she said. As the starting girl was talking Narco noticed the package from his father on the seat next to him and that his father said to open it just before the race. He opened the box to find a music data drive and a note that read, “Dear son, a few songs to help calm your nerves. Some of them may not seem your style nor mine or your mothers but they saw the two of us through a few tough races. The other thing is for luck. It brought me luck when I raced now I can only hope it does the same for you, Pops. Narco looked into the package to find a small metal skull with red eyes, the gear shift knob from his father’s car when he raced. Narco twisted off the plain black knob on his gear shift. He placed the new skull knob on the shaft and gave it a spin making it tighten itself on. The Knob came to a stop facing forward and the red eyes glowed. “Alright people, ready!” the starting girl said. The drivers revved their engines. Narco plugged the music drive and a Hispanic sounding song began to play over the internal speakers (Danza Kuduro by Don Omar). He smiled to himself remembering the song and how his family all loved this song, one of the few non-country or rock songs they liked. “Set!” the starting girl said racing a red bandana in her hand. Narco snapped back to reality gripping his wheel. “GO!” the starting girl said dropping the bandana. The drivers slammed their feet down on the gas pedals as they took off, some of them even popping up on their back tires as they accelerated. As they took off a few of the Smash punks cut across the road cutting everyone off and forcing Narco and Matt into last place. “Well this is not the best start,” Blake said to Weiss, Yang, and Lulu who were with her hiding on an upper floor of the factory the racers showed off their car’s in.  
                The racers ran down the starting road and entered one of the old factory buildings. It was an old car assembly line long abandoned but there were various stacks of crates sitting all over the place and old industrial robot arms moving randomly, clearly started up by the racers. The drivers weaved their way through the open factory floor at high speed. As they drove through the factory one of the Smash Punk drivers was blindsided by a spinning industrial robot. The bot’s arm swung around smashing his windshield and tearing a hole in his roof and as he panicked he lost control and crashed into a pile of crates. As the drivers exited the factory Matt was in tenth place and Narco was in ninth, but Hawk still held the lead.  
                From the factory they left the complex and entered the winding snaking roads of Mount Slate, drifting around the tight U shaped turns. As they entered the mountain roads the song in Narco’s car changed to a faster paced rock song (Electroheart by Amaranthe). The drivers drifted their way through the sharp turns passing each other. As Mustang was driving one of the Smash Punks turned sharp into the front wheel of Mustang’s car forcing him to drive off the road and into a ditch. Mustang climbed out of his car shaking his fist at the cheater. “They’re playing dirty,” Matt said to himself. Another Smash Punk moved to try and do the same to Matt. “Ringo target,” Matt said into his com. Ringo and Ruby were lying prone on top of a smoke stack in the factory complex with their weapons in their rifle form. Ruby was watching the cars move along the track, a glowing outline around each car in her scope. “Shot,” Ringo said as she and Ruby pulled their triggers and two shots fired out. The rounds flew through the air and unnoticeably struck the Smash Punk car trying to take out Matt. The rounds sparked as they struck the car and electricity surged into the car frying the electronics. The Smash Punk ran off the road crashing into a tree. Another Smash Punk tried to slam his car into Narco but the Beacon mechanic hit his breaks fast slowing down enough so the Smash Punk missed him, going past the front of Narco’s car and off the road. As they left the mountain roads towards the top Narco had pulled into sixth place and Matt was in eighth.  
                From the mountains roads they enter a part of Deus Ex know as Hill Town. This part of the town was built up the side of the mountain. The streets running away from the mountain top were angled down at a steep angle of about thirty to thirty-five degrees with the crossing streets being level and the buildings build to be level along the sides of the roads. The racers barreled down the streets going downhill until the leveled out quickly at intersections only to fly off them when the road sloped again. As Narco entered Hill town the music in his car changed to a fast paced rock song (Escape From the City by Ted Poley). As Matt landed from jumping at one of the intersections a Smash Punk’s car nearly landed on top of him but Matt managed to swerve out of the way. “Narco… who thought it was a good… idea to build part of the… town up the side of a mountain?!” Matt asked half rhetorically having to pause each time he jumped at an intersection. “It was… Convenient… The land was… already broken up… from all the mining that… had been done over the… years. When this side… of the mountain was… stripped off recourses… the miners moved off and the contractors and architects… moved in. The ground being torn up already… made it cheaper to build the foundations. Beside… we ran out of room,” Narco explained. Matt hit another jump and the same Smash Punk tried to land on him. “Alright that’s it,” Matt said to himself. “Ruby, Ringo target the car just behind me,” Matt said. “We can’t the buildings are in the way,” the young scythe wielder said. “Just keep an eye on that car for me,” Ringo said as she repositioned herself and took aim. “Give me a countdown to when they hit the eighth street intersection,” Ringo said focusing. Matt dodged several more aggressive moves by the Smash Punk and then they flew off the Eighth street intersection, Matt in front of the punk. As the Smash Punk seemed as if he was about to land on Matt’s car Ringo pulled her trigger. The bullet flew to long distance and struck the Smash Punk car midair and it swerved into a dumpster as it landed. “Nice shot beautiful,” Matt said as he passed another car. As they reached the bottom of the hill and exited Hill Town they turned to off and crashed through the gate onto an abandoned stretch of highway that was never opened, Matt in fifth place and Narco in fourth.  
                As Narco pulled onto the several mile long section of highway he shifted up and put his foot down maxing out his acceleration and his music changed to a harder rock song (Live and Learn by Crush 40). His engine roared as he accelerated soon followed by Matt. They moved fast down the track but still had some distance between them and Hawk who had held the lead for most of the race. “Matt, crack the nitro,” Narco said over the radio. Matt got the idea and flipped a switch on his dashboard. A panel flipped over revealing several covered switches which he flipped one by one starting lights above them with a screen that read out information on the nitro system and three buttons on the steering wheel lit up. Narco flipped a switch and the center console rolled back and a batch opened behind it to reveal access to the engine which was spread throughout the car and reveal three cells of nitro dust. Narco turned each cell and they started to glow as they receded into the engine and conduits of dust glowed red as the three buttons on his wheel lit up. “Burn it!” Narco said as he hit one of the nitro buttons on his and his car rocket forward flames shooting from the exhaust pipes followed by Matt doing the same.  
                Hawk was closing in on the end of the race trailed closely by two other Smash Punks but when he looked in his rear view mirror to see Matt and Narco’s cars closing. “Agh,” he said. He signaled out his window to his two subordinates for them to go back and deal with them as he dialed his scroll. “It’s me raise it,” he said and hung up. While the drivers were racing towards him Matt and Narco were closing when Hawk hit a button on his steering wheel for the nitro system and flames shot from the exhaust ports and he rocketed away towards a draw bridge towards the end of the highway.  
                A group of Smash Punks smashed their way into the control room to the bridge going to the controls pulling a lever causing the bridge to slowly start to raise. The two Smash Punks that Hawk had sent back to deal with Matt and Narco tried to smash into them by braking so the two hunstmen would run into them but they easily dodged them. As the Smash Punks hit their gas pedals to catch up, Matt and Narco looked ahead to see the bridge raising as they closed in on Hawk. “Are they crazing?!” Narco asked rhetorically. “What do we do?” Matt asked as they closed in on the bridge. Hawk hit his nitro as he hit the still raising bridge. “Drive straight until straight into hell! Burn it all!” Narco said as he hit both of his remaining nitro dust buttons draining all of his nitro into the engine. The pistons roared as the car shook and he rocketed forward as Matt did the same and followed closely. They closed in on Hawk just as he flew off the bridge and were followed by the two other Smash Punks and the rest of the drivers skidded to a stop before hitting the bridge. Hawk smiled as he flew through the air thinking he won but his jaw dropped as he saw the undercarriages of Narco and Matt’s cars fly right over him. The other two Smash Punks didn’t have enough speed and landed in the muddy river bank below. Matt and Narco landed in front of Hawk still burning their nitro and rocketed ahead leaving Hawk in the dust.  
                They roared across the finish line as the starting girl waved a checkered flag and the two cars turned to power slide to a stop. Everyone clapped and howled at their amazing victory as the other drivers reached the finish line. Narco and Matt got out to be surrounded by the amazed crowd all wanting to shake their hands and tell them how amazing the race was. “Wrench that was incredible, everyone thought after that wreck back then you’d lost your touch but man!” Skid said in amazement. “Like Wrench could ever lose his touch,” Matt said leaning on the top of his car. Just then Hawk pulled up and his other Smash Punks came to the front of the crowds making their numbers known. Hawk was so mad he kicked his door open so hard it flew off the hinges. He climbed out grinding his teeth in anger as he pulled out a barb wire wrapped baseball bat. “Hey!” Hawk yelled towards Narco. “Hand over the cash,” he threatened. Skid slid behind Narco still holding the pot from the race. “I’m sorry, as I recall the rules say the winner gets the pot,” Narco said sarcastically. “The Smash Punks own this city, we make the rules,” Hawk said pointing the Bat at him. “Now hand over the money or I swear my boss will have your blood on the streets by the end of the week,” Hawk threatened as his subordinates drew out various street weapons knives, swords, bats, pipes, and guns. “So you know this boss of yours personally?” Narco asked. “Well duh off course I do,” Hawk said. “Good,” Narco said looking to Matt. Matt pulled down his hood and tapped a pattern on the roof of his car triggering the computer in it. The computer understood the command and the weapons systems activated deploying the forward machine guns and missile turret. Matt’s sword launched out of the turret to him which he converted to its rifle form as he let out his talons both those under his jacket in addition to the four dozen hidden in storage compartments in his car. Narco pulled out his shotgun as all the Talons opened their blades to reveal their guns. Several of the Smash Punks took a step back startled by the arsenal that had appeared. “What the heck?!” Mustang said. “Narco, why do you have all these weapons?” Skid asked. “Who are you, really? You’re no ordinary racer?!” Hawk demanded. “Your right I’m not. You know about that crash I was in about eight years ago before I left town?” Narco asked. “Vaguely,” Hawk said. “Well I raced right out of town and straight into a classroom, at Beacon Academy,” Narco said. “Allow us to introduce ourselves,” Matt said. “Matt Vert Beacon professor of combat instruction and field operations.” “Narco Grizzle, Beacon Professor of weapons engineering and field engineering,” Narco said. Some of the Smash Punks began to panic a bit when they realized they were facing huntsmen but one of them stood above the others saying, “Come on guys its only two guys.”  
                “You need to recount,” Matt said as he waved his hand in the air. Suddenly Ringo’s boomerang flew down knocking a few Smash Punks off their feet before returning to her where she was standing on one of the exposed upper floors of the buildings. Then several shots rang out striking the weapons from the hands of several punk. They looked up to the source of the shot to see Ruby slinging her scythe over her shoulder. Weiss then dashed out on a time dilation glyph to accelerate herself dashing down to strike down several Smash Punks quickly before flying up and landing on one of the upper floors. Blake jumped down slashing a few punks before throwing up Gambol Shroud in its anchor form and swung up onto another upper flow. Yang slipped into view from behind an upper floor pylon and punched several times firing several long range explosive shots to blow up a few more Punks. Finally, Lulu appeared behind the Smash Punks letting loose an accurate barrage of bullets that struck down Smash Punks before she threw out several dust crystals that turned into a group of golems blocking their escape. When all was said and done Hawk was the only Smash Punk left standing and Matt’s Talons were floating around the unconscious men keeping them covered. Narco sauntered up to the now scared Hawk. Hawk dropped his bat as Narco rested the muzzle of his shotgun under Hawk’s chin and asked, “Who makes the rules now?” Hawk was silent but put on a tough look trying to convince Narco he wasn’t scared. “Oh we got a tough guy,” Narco said. He looked past Hawk to Lulu saying, “Lulu darlin be a peach and see if you can soften up this tough guy.” Lulu converted her machine gun to its compact transport form clipping it to her back pack and sauntered up to Hawk and Narco. She drew her hand cannon revolver holding it to Hawk as she dragged him off saying, “Come along punk rock, let’s have a little chat.”  
                As Lulu took Hawk off to “talk” Narco turned back to see the leaders of the Street Racing crews staring at him. “What?” he said as he walked back to his car slinging his shotgun over his shoulder. “Wrench what the heck happened to you?” Links asked. “Change in life style, and friends,” he said. He walked up and stood in front of Skid. “What?” Skid asked in confusion. “open the case,” Narco said gesturing to the metal briefcase Matt had handed over for their entry fee which now contained the entire pot for the race. Skid got the idea and held up the case opening it, revealing the seven hundred thousand Lien he had just won. As Narco was examining the money Tox asked, “seven hundred thousand in one race. You are now a very rich man.” “I’m not here for the money,” Narco said bundling the money in to piles of fifty thousand plus an extra few thousand before tossing a bundle to each of the Racing crew leaders while keeping the money he and Matt had staked plus a little extra. “I came here for information, and Lulu’s getting that,” he said. He looked over towards the direction Lulu had dragged Hawk off to. “How’s it going darling?” he called out. They could here Hawk whining and begging her to stop before it stopped and Lulu popped her head out from behind of pylon “I’m working on it. This guy’s tougher than he looks,” she said before ducking back behind the pylon and Hawk’s begging returned. “So what are you here to do?” Mustang asked. “I came to put an end to the Smash Punks. I got a call from my baby sister that some thugs were threatening my family, and when you mess with my family…” Narco whipped out his shotgun converting it to its chainsaw sword form and it roared to life, “I send them, their boss, and all their allies back in pieces.” The group of racers took a step back scared of his statement. “What the dust happened to you Wrench?” Tigre asked. “I got it!” Lulu called out as she returned dragging a dazed Hawk behind her, but he didn’t appear to have a scratch on him, he was just sucking his thumb like a child. “He says he was supposed to meet they’re boss’s right hand to turn over their winnings for the day and the crews’ protection money at a bar at the corner of thirty seventh and Coal,” Lulu said chucking Hawk off to the side. “Then we have what we came for,” Matt said as he waved up to the girls and Ringo. They got the message and made their way down and the girls either got into Matt’s car or jumped on their motorcycle as Matt recalled his Talons back into their storage compartments in his car. “Let’s go get changed, I hate leather,” Weiss said as she got into the car. “Yeah, yeah,” Narco said waving her off. “Wrench what happened to you?!” Tigre repeated. Matt’s car, Lulu, Ringo, and Yang’s bikes took off as Narco started his car. He rolled down his window and said, “Wrench died in the wreck eight years ago, and from that fire the huntsmen Narco Grizzle was born. Live free live fast, see you all around.” With that Narco revved his engine and took off after the others. As Narco took off out of the industrial complex, a pair of figures hidden in the shadow of one of the smoke stacks watched him, one in an open denim vest with several patches and a pair of revolvers under his arms and one in a black and gold leather jacket with a rifle slung over his shoulder. The man in the denim vest groaning in anger as the other rested his hand on the first’s shoulder to calm him.  
                After leaving the races they returned to the blind to change back into their normal clothes and Ringo, Weiss, and Yang had to wash the dye out of their hair. After that they left again and drove to the bar that Hawk was supposed to hand over the money. They made sure to leave their vehicles a way’s away as not to draw attention. “Girls get up on the roof tops and wait for us to signal you,” Matt said. “Where are you going?” Ruby asked. “Through the front door of course,” Matt said as if it were a dumb question. The girls made their way up onto the rooftops while the members of team MRLN walked towards the bar. The sun was beginning to rise as team MRLN marched on the bar. They drew their weapons but as they got closer they could hear smashing and glass breaking in the bar. They stopped for a second before various Smash Punks ran out of the door and a few came crashing through the windows as they fired their guns back at an unknown attacker. Team MRLN ducked into an alley before they were noticed before joining the members of team RWBY on a roof. “What happened?” Blake asked. “No clue,” Lulu said. “Just watch for now, we need to reevaluate,” Matt said.  
                The group watched from the roof top as the Smash Punks fought an unknown foe. One of the Smash Punks dove out of one of the windows and before turning back with a gun and fired into the bar when a chain whipped out wrapping around the punk and he was pulled back into the bar screaming. Suddenly the door flew off its hinges having been kicked open and a young man stepped out. He had short spiky black quaffed hair with small portions at the front dyed red on one side and blue on the other, and several piercings in his right ear, a black huggie earring on the lobe and one on the helix of the ear and two studs up the side of the lobe, one red, and the other silver. He wore a black short sleeve shirt under an open dark blue denim biker vest with various patches on the front and an emblem of a crowbar stabbed into an oil drum that was leaking oil, dual dark brown shoulder holsters outside the vest holding two large revolvers, partially worn dark grey jeans, two black belts with silver studs and one hung loose low on the left side, and black and red sneakers. A silver wallet chain hung from his belt to his right pocket, two wide dark brown leather wrist bands with gun metal buckles, and a pair of welding goggles hung around his neck. He cracked his knuckles as all the Smash Punks with guns took aim at him. “Great another player,” Matt said sarcastically before turning to Narco asking, “Hey Nark you got idea who this guy is?” However Narco was just awestruck, “No, it can’t be… Slick Oiler.” “Who’s Slick?” Lulu asked. Narco was silent.  
The man Narco had identified as Slick cracked his knuckles. Two of the Smash Punks ran at Slick with baseball bats. Slick pushed off on the ground with one foot and went sliding away from their attack on the other as if he was on ice instead of concrete. As he reached a wall he jumped up against it and ran along the wall keeping one hand on it as he drew a revolver and shot the two punks. From there he pushed off the wall spinning. He clicked the revolver and it converted into a crowbar. He wacked another thug as he drew the other revolver shooting another Smash Punk before landing and sliding along some more. He converted the other revolver and it turned into a chain whip. He whipped it out catching onto a lamp post using it as a pivot point swinging around it and struck another thug with his crowbar. He whipped out his chain latching onto another Smash Punk pulling him towards him and delivered a swift knee to the guy’s gut. He then back flipped onto the shoulders of another Smash Punk, Smacked the guy in the head with his crowbar, and back flipped off his shoulders hooking his crowbar onto a power line. He swung himself up onto the wire and slide down the wire as he converted both his weapons back to their revolver forms and fired at a group of Smash Punks.  
                The Smash Punks Panicked and began to run down the street to get away from Slick. However as they ran an armored vehicle similar to a Hawkei armored vehicle painted black with gold fenders and detail drifted to a stop blocking the road and a man with short blonde hair stepped out. He wore a black t shirt under a black and gold center chest zipper leather jacket with a high collar, black tactical shoulder harness, black cargo pants with gold outer thighs, a black belt with a large gold buckle and drop leg holster, black boots with gold grieves, and gold forearm guards. Over one of his eyes was a tactical heads up display. Several launcher grenades were strapped to one of his arms while a pair of welding goggles was tied to the other, and the emblem of a horse’s head was embossed across his back.  
                He pulled a weapon off his back and it unpacked into a double barrel assault rifle dropping to one knee and opened fire on the Smash Punks. Some of the punks were frozen by the ice dust rounds the gold soldier was firing. The rest of the punks either dove behind their frozen cohorts or behind anything else they could use for cover. Some of the punks drew guns and opened fire at the soldier but he reached behind his back pulling out and unpacking a large riot shield that covered him from all the incoming shots. He held the shield against the ground pulling a trigger in it causing a pair of spikes to jam into the ground holding the shield for him while he hid behind it while reloading. He gripped the shields handle and retracted the anchors before he charged forward using his shield for cover while firing his rifle forward. As he got close he converted the rifle turning it into a sword. His shield smashed into one of the punks pushing him down under the shield. He flipped over letting go of the shield. As he landed on his feet he converted the rifle again turning it a spear of sorts with a long blade running all the way down the shaft with handles on the other side and a circle in the center of the shaft with a handle in it that could allow the shafts to spin around the ring. He spun around slashing one punk with the end of the spear before spinning back around and blocking another punk trying to attack him with a pipe. He clicked an ice dust vial into a socket on the blade on the end of his spear. He ducked back to dodge the swing of a Smash Punk with a tire iron before sweeping his leg under the punk knocking him over and he stabbed the spear head into the street and ice dust erupted from the point freezing the thug to the ground. Some more punks were running up to attack him. The soldier pulled the trigger for the gun on the back end of the spear in the air. A burst of shots flew up into the before the soldier activated his semblance. The bullets all changed course sharply each finding their way straight into a Smash Punk. He then pulled the trigger in the head using the shot to dislodge the spear and propelling him forward into the air. He landed on his earlier abandoned shield sliding on it like it was a skate board. He spun on the shield slashing a group of Smash Punks he passed though. From there still spinning he converted the spear back to its rifle form. He jumped off the shield skidding to a halt emptying his clip into the group of punks before drawing a single shot grenade launcher pistol and fired at the last group of sanding Smash Punks. The grenade exploded with wind dust sending the whole group flying in various directions slamming into things.  
                As the punks scrambled to get to their feet the soldier put his rifle on his back and kicked down on his shield popping it up into his hand before collapsing it and returning it to his back. He clicked his grenade launcher and it split open ejecting the spent grenade shell before he took a new one from his shoulder putting it in the launcher and flicked it closed. The Smash Punks began to panic. They turned back to see Slick loading fresh rounds into his revolvers. The Smash Punks were cornered when they noticed an alley blocked by a weak wood fence and they ran for it smashing through the fence. However, before they could all escape Slick’s chain wrapped around the ankle of the lieutenant and Slick pulled him back. Slick pulled the lieutenant back to him forcing him against the ground putting his knee to the punk’s chest restricting his breathing as he converted his revolver to its crowbar form. He smacked the ground with the bar within an inch of the lieutenant’s head. “Where’s your boss?!” Slick demanded. The soldier in gold just looked the other way as Slick intimidated the lieutenant and moved his armored vehicle out of the road. “Where is your boss?!” Slick yelled as he smashed the ground next to the punk. Teams MRLN and RWBY were watching from the rooftop as Slick was interrogating the Smash Punk. “This guy looks like a real piece of work,” Weiss said. “Yeah and I think the grease monkey here might know that better than any of us,” Lulu said gesturing towards Narco. However, Narco wasn’t paying attention to them. He was just watching Slick and the soldier. As he was watching he noticed a Smash Punk sneaking up on Slick with a sword about to strike Slick. “Slick Look out!” Narco yelled out. Slick froze at the sound of his voice. Narco acted fast dropping into his shadow before flying out of the Smash Punk’s shadow with Chop Shop drawn and slashed the punk knocking him away. Slick turned to see Narco saving him only for his chain to go slack and the punk escape over the fence into the alley. “Dust!” Slick cursed and he ran after the Smash Punk. “Slick wait!” Narco called out and he followed Slick vaulting over the fence and jumping from shadow to shadow along with jumping over various obstacles. “Slick, Nark, wait up!” The soldier called out but he accepted he wasn’t going to catch up with them.  
                The soldier stopped at the fence. He punched the fence saying to himself, “Well those two haven’t changed.” Then on instinct he spun around aiming his rifle at the remaining members of team MRLN and team RWBY with their weapons aimed at the soldier. “Can I assume you’re with Narco?” The Soldier asked. “Who are you?” Matt asked. The soldier lowered his rifle taking a breath. “There’s a little diner around the corner. This is the first time I’ve been back in Deus Ex in nearly a decade and I have been dying to eat their food again. Can we at least do this over breakfast?” the soldier asked. Everyone suddenly heard a rumbling and turned to see it was Ruby’s stomach. “Sorry,” she said. Matt lowered his weapon followed by the others.  
                The soldier led them around the corner and up the street to a corner diner. Walking in it had a racecar theme with lots of red and black and white checkered patterns, a long counter down one side with booths along the wall under the window and red leather bench seats, and circular booths in the corners. “Arlind Palomino as I live and breathe,” one of the older waitresses said as she hugged the soldier. “It’s good to see you too Shelly,” the soldier said who they assumed was named Arlind. “Don’t suppose the others are with you?” Shelly asked. “No not today. Our old booth open?” he asked. “Always,” she said showing them to a round booth table in the back corner and passed out menus. “What will it be Arlind?” she asked. “Oh first time back in eight years, I don’t know where to start,” Arlind said drooling over the menu. “Oh screw restraint. I’ll take the pancakes, five strips of bacon, steak and two eggs over easy, hash browns with cheese, biscuits and gravy, a couple of sausages, coffee black, and orange juice,” Arlind ordered. “And you favorite?” she asked. “Oh right and a nice big bowl of the high octane chili,” he said handing over the menu. “I swear you’re probably the only person in town with a case iron stomach that can digest that chili,” Shelly Joke. “And for everyone else?”  
                Everyone sat in silence until the food came Arlind started to dig in until he noticed everyone staring at him. “What?” “Who are you? Who was you partner? How does Narco know you? And why are you involved in this?” Matt asked. Arlind pause for a second but then returned to eating as he explained, answering the question with a question, “How much has Narco told you about his past here in Deus Ex?” “He grew up here with his family. When he was old enough he started a racing crew with a group of his best friends,” Lulu said. “Name’s Arlind Palomino and my associate Narco chased after was Slick Oiler. We were two of the other members of the Welders. Though I take it he didn’t tell you what broke us up,” Arlind said. “He got in a wreck during a race and didn’t have the heart to race again,” Lulu said. “That’s not even half the story,” Arlind said as he took another bight.  
                “We were best friends since we first learned to talk, Me, Narco, Slick, and the only girl in our group Ayako Jett. We hung out every day from sun up to sun down and well into the night. When we turned sixteen and got our hands on cars we formed the Welders. We had always dreamed about being the best racing crew in Deus Ex. We would sneak out at night and go to the street races all the time,” Arlind explained. “We already know this. Narco crashed and left town,” Weiss said. “Easy sweetheart that’s not what started it all,” Arlind said before gulping down the last of his coffee. He then held up the mug as Shelly filler it and he continued. “We hit the ground running. We won every race and anyone who came after us because they didn’t like it got the dust beaten out of them.” “So where does everything go south?” Matt asked with a mouth half full.  
“Well you need to first understand each of our pasts. As you probably know Narco had a big family with a good business behind him. Ayako was basically Deus Ex royalty. He father was the Mayor so she was held up to a high standard than most kids. She hated it so she hung out with us middle class kids. My old man was a cop but of course in this town, cops don’t do much. Slick however, Slick’s father was killed when he was young and his mother was always struggling to find a job. She didn’t really control him or raise him very well but he also cared a lot about his mother and most of it was just him blowing off steam from all the problems they had. He acted out, graffiti, vandalism, petty theft, but then he made the big mistake. While Slick acted out a lot he still tried to help his struggling mother. He tried to rob a shop. He had called Narco telling him to pick him up around the corner,” Arlind said. “Wait this isn’t on Narco’s record,” Lulu said. “That’s because of what happened next. You see Slick never told Nark he was going to be a getaway driver. Slick robbed the shop but was seen on the way out. He ran around the corner only to find Narco not there and a beat cop with some actual pride in law enforcement. He was arrested and got a year in prison,” Arlind said. “Wait, why wasn’t Narco there?” Yang asked. Arlind looked down disappointed with himself, “I never told Slick this but it was his sister’s birthday,” Arlind said. “Slick planned his robbery on one of his four sisters’ birthdays?” Blake asked. “Well at the time there were only three of them. That was the day Narco’s youngest sister Cola was born. Maroon who was still little at the time managed to call Narco. Their dad was out and couldn’t be reached so she called Narco and he had to drive her to the hospital. Slick got a year in prison,” Arlind said.  
                “What about you?” Matt asked. “Well after one of my best friends got sent to jail, my parents decided I needed better role models. My parents shipped me off to Atlas to live with my uncle. He was a major in the Atlas military. I spent a year with him where he drill me into the ground trying to get me to clean up my act, before I ran away and got back to Deus Ex. I got back and found out Narco had left town after he had wrecked his car. I figured he was off his game since all his friends were being taken away from him. I ended up finding Slick after he got out of jail, and we decided to attend Haven Academy and became huntsmen,” Arlind said as he sat back finishing his coffee. “What happened to Ayako?” Ruby asked. “I don’t know. When I got back she left town. From what I heard she won a bunch of races and left town with a few thousand Lien,” Arlind said.  
“So what are you two doing here in town?” Lulu asked. “We heard our home town was being terrorized and came to help,” Arlind said. “Alright then let’s work together,” Ringo said. “Easier said than done, I’m all for it but Slick, well any friend of Narco’s is an enemy of his. He’s blamed Narco for getting sent to jail and has hated him ever since,” “Then we’ll strap them down and make them talk it out,” Matt said. “How, we don’t even know where they went,” Arlind said. Matt held up his scroll. On it was a map with a pinging point on it. “Tracker in Narco’s scroll,” Matt said. Arlind waved his hand to the waitress, “Check please.”  
                They found Narco and Slick in an alley on the other end of town arguing. Slick was sitting on the hood of a red car that looked like a Plymouth Superbird that they assumed was his and Narco was pacing in frustration. “Slick talk to me,” Narco said. “Go kiss a boarbatusk!” Slick said. “Gentlemen,” Arlind said. They both looked at him before returning to their argument. “You just go back to your fancy Beacon Academy and leave this old town you abandoned to someone who cares about it!” Slick said. “What are you two even doing here?” Matt asked. This time they stopped to acknowledge them. “We followed that Smash Punk Lieutenant to the warehouse around the corner. We’re pretty sure it’s one of their hideouts and their leader is inside. I want to sneak in, get the lay of the land before striking, but Slick here wants to go in guns blazing,” Narco said. “Direct force is the only way we’re ever going to send these guys a message. We put them all in the hospital and the others will fall in line real fast,” Slick said. Matt bolted up to them putting a hand on each of them and gave them each a shock trying to shock some sense into them. “Alright both of you shut up,” Matt said. They both shut up. “Alright now you’re both right. Now Narco and I will sneak in first and see how strong they are, where their escapes routes are, and what kind of weapons they have. Then will call you and you can come in guns blazing,” Matt said. “Fine!” Slick and Narco said in unison but both unhappy.  
                Matt and Narco snuck into the warehouse through one of Narco’s shadows coming out on a cat walk running along the ceiling. It was mostly empty but with some various shipping containers assembled into a few small buildings of sorts and a makeshift car garage facility. About three dozen Smash Punks were hanging around warming themselves in front of can fires, working on their cars, or drinking. “I’m telling you boss, these guys were insane. They shot up the bar, they beat us to a pulp, and they nearly killed me. You got to do something,” they heard one of the punks who they recognized as the lieutenant from earlier saying to someone hidden in shadows. This person in the shadows swiftly punched him in the face dropping him on the floor before the shadowy figure said something to him they couldn’t hear. “Alright this is defiantly the place. See any exit points?” Matt asked Narco. “No I don’t see any way out other than the main door,” Narco said. “Alright,” Matt said taking out his scroll to call the others.  
Lulu picked up her scroll back with the others, “Yeah… right… Matt you spoil me, you know that’s my favorite strategy. Give us five minutes,” she said hanging up. She turned to the others, “Hey Arlind, that mini tank of yours got any fire crackers?” Arlind opened the door to his armored vehicle he called the Rhino and flipped a few switches. They could hear clicking from inside the vehicle before hatches opened on the sides of the vehicle. Two groups of missiles extended out, a turret raised from the roof and a large armored plow like ram unpacked from the front. “auto-reloading missile launchers, turret with a center forty-millimeter cannon and dual thirty caliber machine guns, forward armored ram and…” Arlind knocked on the side of the vehicle, “two inches of dust reinforced armored plating and bullet proof windows.” Lulu rubbed her hands deviously, “Beautiful.”  
                Five minutes later A missile blew open the doors of the warehouse and Slick and Arlind’s vehicles flew in followed by Lulu, Ringo, and Yang’s motorcycles as they started blasting the Smash Punks’ little fortress. The Smash Punks all scrambled to grab some form of weapon to defend themselves, anything from a gun to a simple wrench. Arlind drifted to a stop as he turned the turret on top of his vehicle towards a group of Smash Punks with a small thumb joystick on his wheel before pulling a trigger on the back of the wheel firing the machine guns taking out the group. As all the vehicles stopped, all the huntsmen and students jumped out and started taking down Smash Punks. Matt and Narco jumped down from the rafters they were hiding in and joined in the onslaught.  
                As they were fighting Narco and Slick ended up getting pushed back to back and surrounded. “Back to back surrounded by a bunch of thugs that want to beat the dust out of us, just like old times ay Slick?” Narco joked. “You gonna leave me out to dry like old times too?” Slick scoffed. “Let it go dude. Three o’clock,” Narco said before he dropped into his shadow as Slick fired one of his revolvers at a thug on one of the shipping containers out of sight at Slick’s three o’clock that was lining up a shot with a rifle. Arlind moved from container to container sweeping through them like a soldier clearing a building, taking out Smash Punks. Lulu was covering the only exit with a half dozen golems of earth dust preventing any of the punks from escaping. Ringo had used a vine to pull herself up into the rafters and was sniping down Smash Punks with lightning dust rounds. As for Matt and the RWBY girls, they were scattered about taking down Smash Punks.  
                Matt was particularly frustrated with these guys. They had been threatening his friend’s family and if there was one thing one should never do, its mess with Matt’s friends. Thing about Matt was when he was fighting angry he tended to use a weapon that he rarely used, the Bolt Shrikes. Matt simply walked towards a group of Smash Punks calmly, not even drawing his sword scythe. The Smash Punks thought he was crazy but decided to take the opportunity to take him out. One of the Smash Punks ran at him and swung a sledge hammer at him. Before the hammer could fully come down, Matt punched straight at the hammer faces. As his punch flew towards the hammer a full armored gauntlet similar to Yang’s unpacked from under his sleeve and fired a shotgun shell on impact with the hammer. The entire head of the hammer flew off the handle and flew into another Smash Punk. Matt followed through with the punch letting it spin him as he clicked his wrist. A small device in the gauntlet activated using metal dust to fill a mold running along the underside of his forearm forming a knife in a fraction of a second filling its core with ice dust. The finished blade flipped into his hand with a back handed grip and Matt slashed the Smash Punk across the chest before stabbing the blade into him. However, instead of stabbing into the punk the blade shattered causing the ice dust to activate encasing the Smash Punk in ice. As Matt stood from his finishing position from defeating the thug he flicked his other wrist and clicked his heels on the ground twice causing the other gauntlet to unpack from his other sleeve and a pair of grieves like Mercury’s to unpack form up the legs of his pants. “And the Journey continues,” Matt said under his breath as he clicked his heel firing off a shotgun shell propelling him forward at the group of Smash Punks. As he reached them he threw a punch firing a shotgun shell that blasted a thug plus slowed him down to land. He skidded as he landed before kicking another thug firing a shotgun shell blasting another thug. He used the recoil from that shot to spin his leg around and spin kick another punk only to continue around dropping low and sweeping the legs out from under another. Another Smash Punk came at him with an axe. Matt ducked back staying on his feet as he slid to the side as he clicked his wrists and heels letting out the Bolt Shrikes’ final secret. He opened his fingers from their punching grips and knife like blades extended onto each finger while a set of blades extended over the toes of his boots. Matt spun on the balls of his feet slashing the punk with his new claws. He continued to spin as he planted his hand on the ground and spun up onto his hands slashing though thugs like a propeller. He spun back onto his feet taking a fighting stance and asked the remaining Smash Punks, “Who’s next?”  
                As the fighting continued Narco had moved out of sight as he took out Smash Punks. He ended in a dark corner between two shipping containers. Shotgun in hand he moved carefully forward just waiting for someone to jump out. Suddenly he heard a sound behind him and on instinct he spun around a fired. But there was nothing, just an old shelf giving way after being damaged by a stray shot. Narco took a deep breath. “What’s the matter Wrench, seeing ghosts?” a new female voice said behind him. Narco looked up recognizing the voice, but it couldn’t be her. He spun around to see only to have a forty-millimeter launcher grenade fired dead in his chest sending him flying.  
Slick and Arlind had just managed to finish taking done the last of their Smash Punks when Narco flew into the two of them not only knocking them down but the pile continued to skid until they reached the feet of Matt and the members of team RWBY. “What the dust Narco?!” Slick demanded in anger. Narco’s eyes were wide in a panic, “It’s her.” “Who her?!” Slick demanded. “Me her, you traitors,” the voice from earlier said. As Slick and Arlind looked up to see the source of the voice, their jaws dropped as a young woman stepped out of the shadows with a pump action grenade launcher in hand as she converted it to a baseball bat and slung in behind her shoulders. Her she had black hair but her messy bangs had streaks of neon blue and pink on one side covering her left eye. She had several ponytails all tied togetheron back of her head at a single point and each a different color either neon blue, red, purple, pink, or orange each with a small metal sphere on each one. She wore silver welding goggles around neck, a red fading to purple tank top with black emblem of a baseball bat smashing a skull, a black leather jacket with studded shoulder pads, purple and red plaid skirt, tight black leather pants, black calf high strappy boots, purple lipstick, heavy eyeliner, black studded belt with a wallet chain hanging to a pocket in her skirt, and two studded straps wrapped around her left thigh.  
                “Long time no back stab boys,” she said. “I thought you loved this town, but you joined the Smash Punks who are destroying it?!” Arlind demanded to know. “Oh golden boy I am the Smash Punks,” she said as she spread her arms out, “I’m their leader.” “How could you do this? Going after my family, people who considered you part of their family and the other racers who considered you a friend?!” Narco demanded. “After you all abandoned me, the people I considered my family, it was easy!” she yelled at them. Narco snapped out of his daze. He stood up picking up Chop Shop and converted it to its chainsaw sword mode and pulled the saw trigger starting the blade. “Well if that’s how you feel,” he said as he was about to charge at her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, unless you don’t mind shrinking you family some more,” the leader of the Smash Punks said. Narco stopped, “What are you talking about?” You’ve been so busy going after my boys, you haven’t checked in on your folks have you. Well you’ll be happy to know they’re staying with a few of my men at one of our little bases. So if you don’t want to make your sisters orphans, you’ll listen,” she said. Narco gritted his teeth as he adjusted his stance out of his charging stance. “Remember that ultimate race we always talked about?” she asked. Narco’s eyes went wide. “One Welder’s Inferno around the death’s head circuit. If you win you get your parents back and I’ll surrender to the police, but if I win, well you won’t live to regret it,” she said. Narco was struggling to not charge at her right then and there and chop her head off. “Bring as many drivers as you want, any vehicle you want. We race in two days,” she said as she fired a grenade at the wall of the warehouse blowing an opening for the Smash Punks to escape and they retreated. Yang was about to go after them when Narco held out his hand to stop her when she looked at him he had fear in his eyes, but not fear for his own life but that for the lives of others.  
                Slick turned and punched a shipping container before walking off. “Who was that?” Ruby asked. “The last Welder, Ayako Jett,” Arlind said. Suddenly Narco flicked his head up with a realization before he ran off. “Where’s he going?” Weiss asked. Arlind’s eyes went wide, “She only said they had his parents, his sisters.” Everyone realized the gravity of the situation. “Look I’ll talk to Slick, go with Narco,” Arlind said before taking off after Slick.  
                Narco ran on foot all the way back to his family’s home with tears of worry in his eyes, with the rest of team MRLN and RWBY close behind. When they reached the Grizzle family’s auto parts store, it was a mess. The windows were smashed, displays were knocked over and there were bullet holes everywhere. “No,” Narco said fearing the worst. He jumped through one of the shattered windows surveying the seen followed by the others. “They used guns on an unarmed family,” Narco said. “I don’t think so,” Matt said as he pulled a slug out of the wall and looked to see water on the ground. “What are you talking about?” Narco asked. “look at the damage. The windows glass is on the outside as if they were shot from the inside and the shatter pattern would infer a shotgun was used. Plus look at these rounds in the walls. Close spread bird shot, twenty-eight millimeter rounds, and nine millimeter rounds plus the water on the ground could infer ice melted there.” Narco wasn’t listening as he ran into the garage calling out, “Girls!” Within a second he was blindsided by a large objected. He fell on his back and looked up to see Mutton standing over him Growling in anger before the dog realized it was Narco and started licking his face. “Mutton stop,” he said pushing the dog off. “Dax, Sarge, Frostbite, front and center,” Matt called out. Within a second Matt’s three dogs popped out of hiding places and lined up in front of him, each in their combat gear. “You guys fired all that ammunition trying to protect everyone didn’t you?” he asked the animals as he kneeled down to pet them. The dogs raised their heads in pride. “Good boys, but where are Narco’s sisters?” he asked them. The dogs popped to their feet and ran to the side door, barking for them to follow.  
                They followed Dax, Sarge, Frostbite, and Mutton outside to the Blind to find in in lockdown mode with armored plates closed over the hatches and windows. The dogs pointed. Narco took out his scroll and pressed a few buttons opening the Blind by remote. He walked in cautiously. Suddenly he heard a sound next to him in the darkness. He spun pointing his shotgun when he realized it was Maroon with her wrench shotgun pointed at him. “Maroon, oh thank the Dust,” he said dropping his shotgun and hugging his sister. Maroon started to sob, “They took Mom and Dad, I couldn’t stop them.” “Calm down Spitfire, where are you sisters?” Maroon showed them the bunk room where Kali, Ceara, and Cola were cowering under a bunk with Cola holding Zwei like a security blanket. They popped their heads out to see their brother. “Narky!” they all cried out as they scurried out of under the bunk and hugged him all at once. A tear of relief fell from Narco’s eye, happy at least his sisters were safe. “Narky what happened? I thought you were going to stop the Smash Punks,” Kali asked. As they let go Narco started pacing and running his hands through his hair trying to process everything, but the more he tried the more he felt his own brain coming apart at the seams. Eventually he just threw his head back screaming and walked out of the Blind as Matt and the others walked in.  
“Girls are you alright?” Lulu asked kneeling down to the younger girls. They hugged Lulu seeking comfort. “It was so scary,” Ceara said. “Alright, alright, what happened,” Lulu asked showing rare compassion. “Five cars full of Smash Punks showed up this morning. Matt’s dogs started growling as if they knew something bad was happening before they ran out of the room,” Kali said. “Yeah, they’re trained to detect volatile situations,” Matt said. “All the Smash Punks came into the shop. And said we were all coming with them. They grabbed Mom and Dad and tried to get to us, but I managed to take out the two that came after us,” Maroon said. “Then we started hearing gun fire and saw Matt’s dogs in armor with guns strapped to their backs and large knives in their mouths, attacking the Smash Punks, plus Mutton was running head first into another punk trying to bite them.” That’s my boys,” Matt said petting his proud dogs. “Mom yelled for me to protect my sisters so I didn’t go after them. Dax pointed towards the door towards your airship outside so I figured he wanted us to go in it. I herded the girls inside and Frostbite pressed a big red button next to the door before running out again and we were trapped in here. We heard a ton of banging on the outside but then they must have given up,” Maroons said. “The dogs probably saved your lives. They knew the Blind would be the safest place for you,” Matt said. “Hey were did Narco storm off too,” Blake asked. “My guess to his old room then to the roof,” Maroon said when they started to hear a slow banjo tune coming from outside. “The whole pacing and then screaming at the sky thing, Narco does it every time he’s over stressed. It usually ends with him grabbing his banjo and going to the roof. The playing helps him vent,” Maroon said. “I didn’t know Narco played the Banjo,” Lulu said. “Grandpappy taught him,” Ceara said. “But he did leave it here when he left all those years ago, so it would make sense you wouldn’t know,” Maroon said.  
                They all went up to the roof to see Narco sitting back on a lounge chair made of scrap. He had taken off his vest and gloves and pulled his welding goggles over his eyes. He just stared up at the sky as he plucked at the banjo. “Narco, you still sane?” Matt asked him half joking. Narco said nothing, he just kept plucking the banjo. “Narco? Narco?” Matt snapped his fingers in front of Narco’s eyes but he didn’t respond. “NARCO!” he yelled at him as he took the banjo from the grease monkey. Narco gave Matt a swift kick in the shin. Matt’s eye’s bulged as he dropped the banjo and grabbed his leg in pain. “Dust it Narco!” he cursed as he hoped around on one foot. Narco caught the Banjo and returned to playing. When the pain subsided in his shin Matt said, “that’s it,” as he cracked his knuckles fully prepared to beat some sense into Narco when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He stopped and turned his head to see Lulu. “Everybody go downstairs,” she said in an assertive tone. “What?” Yang asked. “He’s my man and I’m going to fix him. Now go,” she said. Everyone listened to Lulu but it was mostly because they were scared of what she might do to them if they didn’t and scurried down the stairs like scared mice.  
                Lulu unbuckled her ammo backpack, bandoleer of dust crystals and her drop leg holster, setting them down next to the stairs along with her machine gun and heavy pistol. Then she unzipped her hoodie. Under it was a purple tank top under a black fitted bullet proof vest. She removed the vest and left it and her hoodie with the rest of her equipment. Lulu only ever took off her he Kevlar with someone she trusted. She only ever did this when she and Narco ever opened up to each other.  
She sat down on the end of the lounge chair facing Narco with her legs crossed. “Alright Narco talk to me,” she said. Narco just kept plucking at the banjo. “Narco,” She tried again. He ignored her. She climbed over him straddling him looking down into the lenses of his goggles. “Anarchy Dudley Grizzle!” she said using his full given name a little annoyed. Narco stopped playing but just sat there. Then she noticed a drop of fluid dripping from the side of the goggles. “Narco?” she asked in a concerned tone. She reached for the goggles. Narco flinched a bit as if he was about to grab her hands to stop her but then stopped. Lulu took the goggles and took them off. Narco had been crying the whole time and his goggles had nearly completely filled with his tears. “Narco,” she said in compassion. She reached for his cheek but he just dropped into his shadow coming out of the shadow of the chimney. He breathed trying to hold back more tears before he turned and punched the corner of the chimney smashing out a piece of the brick work. He grasped his hand in pain. “Narco,” Lulu said as she got up. She took Narco’s hand and looked to see what damage he had done to it. “Agh, Narco you’ve got to find a better way of dealing with your emotions,” she said.  
                Narco just burst into tears. “Narco,” she said as she put her hand on his cheek. “This is all my fault,” he said. “How could this be your fault?” she asked. Narco took her hand off his face before he turned away and walked over to the edge of the roof. He vaulted himself over the half wall that ran around the roof and sat on it letting his legs hang over the side and looked out over the city. “The women, the one that leads the Smash Punks…” “What is it Narco?” Lulu asked. “She’s Ayako Jett. She was one of the Welders. She was one of my best friends. This all started with me. This all started when I decided to go to Beacon. If I hadn’t chosen to go to Beacon, Slick wouldn’t have tried to rob that store, he wouldn’t have gotten arrested, so Arlind’s parents wouldn’t have sent him away, I wouldn’t have been depressed and unfocused causing that crash, and I wouldn’t have left town leaving Ayako all alone,” Narco said listing off a ridiculous butterfly effect explanation. “Narco,” Lulu said trying to console him as she sat down next to him. “And now because of me my parents are in danger.” “Narco you couldn’t have known all this would happen,” Lulu said. Narco didn’t respond. Lulu took Narco’s face and turned it to face hers and he was surprised to be looking into her deep purple eyes not the black lenses of her aviator sunglasses. Lulu took her aviators off even less than Coco did. She only ever took them off when she was trying to get her emotional point across, either one of anger, concern, or love. Her eyes were full of compassion and worry for him, Lulu rarely let her emotions show but she clearly cared. “We all make our mistakes, we just got to accept it, and make them right,” Lulu said.  
                “Hey you remember what we were each like when we first came to Beacon?” she asked. “You had that weird ability to tell when a guy was about to hit on you and you’d slug them before they could even open their mouths,” he said. “And you wouldn’t say a word to anyone to save your own life,” she added. They both chuckled a bit. “Being like that was our mistakes but we helped each other through it,” Lulu said. “Lulu, you still punch guys in the face,” Narco said. “Well yeah but not as much,” she said in her defense. They laughed a little more before looking into each other’s eyes again. “So, are we going to put this behind us and do what we got to do?” Lulu asked him. He chuckled a bit nodding a little. “Why are you so perfect for me?” he asked. She giggled and kissed him, a long one at least five seconds. When they backed off each other they looked out over the city. “Well this seems familiar,” Narco said. “Yeah our sophomore year we were sitting on the roof of the hanger watching the sunset over Vale. That was our first kiss,” Lulu said. This time Narco took Lulu by the chin turning her head and kissed her. “I do not, cannot, and never will deserve you Lulu Lavender,” he said. “I always, have always, and always will deserve you Anarchy Dudley Grizzle,” she said. That was their thing. They hated saying “I love you” so this was their way of saying it. He laughed a little. “Is it wrong I totally regret telling you my given name?” he asked. “Too late now,” she said before giving him another kiss.  
                “Ew!” they heard three young voices say. They looked over to the stairs to see Kali, Ceara, and Cola’s heads half hidden behind the door to the stairs watching them. “Girls we told you not to spy on them. We have no idea how Lulu will react,” they heard Matt saying behind them as he and someone else pulled the girls away from the door. They both laughed a bit. “Sorry, you know how young girls can be,” he said. “Oh I think it’s cute how curious they are,” she said. She then looked back to Narco to see him just staring at her. “What?” “Sometimes I forget how much softer you are without the glasses,” he said staring into her eyes. “Well unfortunately that Lulu isn’t the one we need for this,” she said giving him another quick kiss before flipping her legs over the wall and standing up. Narco followed suit standing up and taking her hands. “We good?” she asked. “Yeah we’re good,” he said. She picked up his welding goggles and put them on his head. He then took her sun glasses and put them over her eyes. “Alright, we have two days to prepare. Let’s get to it,” she said and they went down stairs, Narco grabbing his banjo and Lulu grabbing her gear.  
                While Lulu was consoling Narco Arlind was with Slick at a racing themed bar at that actually wasn’t too far away. Slick was nursing a glass of bourbon when Arlind found him. Arlind sat down next to him and ordered a beer. “So Ayako is the one running the Smash Punks. Didn’t see that coming,” Arlind said breaking the dead air. “This is all Narco’s fault. If he hadn’t left me out to dry, I wouldn’t have got arrested, you wouldn’t have been shipped off to your uncle and she wouldn’t have been left alone,” Slick said. “Slick you can’t blame Narco. You never told him what you were doing,” Arlind said. “That’s no excuse to just blow me off,” Slick said taking another swig. Arlind took a deep breath, “Slick, I should have told you this eight years ago.” “What are you talking about?” Slick asked. “The reason Narco wasn’t there is because it was his sister’s birthday,” Arlind said. “What are you talking about? It was spring and Narco’s sisters were born in the fall and the summer,” Slick argued. “Slick you have completely forgotten haven’t you. Narco’s mom was pregnant,” Arlind said. Slick froze. “Slick Narco was there to pick you up but he was called away to drive his mother to the hospital to deliver his youngest sister,” Arlind said. “You couldn’t have told me this before?” Slick asked. “You never let me. Every time I tried to bring up Narco you’d start yelling,” Arlind said. Slick looked down into his glass. “So then who’s fault is this?” he asked. “Slick blame isn’t important. What matters is what are we going to do to resolve this,” Arlind said as he finished his beer. “Now I don’t know about you but I’m going to Narco’s, I’m going to help him get his parents back, and I’m going to try to get Ayako to come to her senses. What are you going to do?” Slick asked. Slick downed the rest of his drink and stood up. “Let’s go,” Slick said. “Wait, are you good to drive?” Slick asked. “I only had one bourbon,” Slick said walking out.  
                They went downstairs to the garage where they found Narco’s sisters talking with the members of team RWBY while Matt was sharpening Storm Front and Ringo was playing with a plant using her semblance. “Wait Narco’s name is really what?” Ruby asked the Grizzle sisters. “Yes, my birth name is Anarchy Dudley Grizzle, but I just shorten Anarchy to Narco,” Narco said coming up behind them startling them. “Now we have about sixty hours till the race. So we got to get two cars and three bikes ready to race,” Narco said. “You mean four cars,” they heard behind them and turned to see Slick and Arlind. “Slick, Arlind, what are you guys doing here?” Narco asked. Slick didn’t say anything. He walked past Narco and over to his four sisters. He walked straight up to the one sister he didn’t recognize, Cola. She was scared. To her Slick was more intimidating than a Death Stalker. She pulled her beanie down over her eyes and cowering. Slick knelt down to her eye level. He gentle took her beanie sliding it off her eyes so he could look into them. “So you’re the newest Grizzle. What’s your name sweetheart?” he asked her. “Cola,” she muttered. He patted her on the head before standing up and turning to Narco. “So two days to prepare. For street racers that means we got about sixty hours. I’d say they gave us more than enough time,” he said cracking his knuckles. “You mean?” Narco asked enthusiastically. “Let’s blow Ayako off the streets,” Slick said.  
                They pulled Slick and Arlind’s vehicles into the garage and prepared to begin work. “Alright, if we going to run a Welder’s Inferno, we’re going to need everything we can muster,” Narco said. “That reminds me, what is a Welder’s Inferno?” Matt asked. “It was the craziest, wildest, and above all stupidest idea we ever had for a race,” Arlind said. “It’s a one lap race around one of the most diverse courses we ever conceived, ranging from paved straightaways to curving dirt roads, and to make things even more dangerous it’s a combat race. Racers were allowed to bump, ram and attack other cars with any weapon or device they could think of to get ahead of the others,” Narco said looking through his book of old ideas. “You guys actually did this? How did you not kill each other?” Weiss asked. “We never actually ran a Welder’s Inferno. It was just some idea we cooked up while celebrating after a race. I can’t believe Ayako even remembered,” Slick said. “So we need combat capable vehicles capable of high speed, tight handling, variable traction for various road types, and a few surprises,” Narco said.  
                “We want to help,” Kali said standing with her other three sisters. “Good we’re going to need help getting the cars and bikes in shape,” Narco said. “No she means we want to race,” Maroon said. “I can’t let you girls in the line of fire, besides you’re too young to drive,” Narco said. “I can’t drive, at least a motorcycle. My friend Tawny turned sixteen a few months ago and her parents got her a bike. She’s been letting me barrow it to practice and I’m good,” Maroon argued. “You don’t even have a bike?” Arlind said. “I’ll ride Narco’s,” she argued. “Oh no, Road Burn is way too much bike for you. She way to sensitive for someone that’s only been riding for a few months,” Narco said. “Narco they’re our parents too,” Maroon said. Once again Narco accepted he wasn’t going to win this argument. “Fine you can race but you’re not riding Road Burn and Matt’s bike is way too complex for you. This is going to be the third surprise ruined this week. Wait here,” Narco said walking out to the Blind. After a few minutes of banging and clanking the front garage door opened and Narco walked a black and maroon red roadster motorcycle in. Maroon walked around the bike with her hands at her mouth trying to contain herself. She examined every inch of the bike from the gas tank and fenders to the engine, saddle boxes, and the license plate reading GRZ GRL (Griz Girl). “I was saving Spitfire here for your sixteenth birthday, but…” Narco said but before he could finish Maroon tackled him hugging him. “Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love it!” she said enthusiastically. “Yeah, yeah calm down. We’re still going to have to add a few things to make her combat worthy,” Narco said as he stood up dusting himself off. “At least the other three don’t have an argument, by the way where did those three go?” he asked.  
                Then they heard a thumping. “Huh, I didn’t realize they got them operational,” Maroon said realizing what it was. Then two small mechs walked up to the door. The first a stout body with triple joint reversed legs similar to a chicken as well as a pair of short arms, a turret on the back, and the word Razorback graffiti on the front. The other had a somewhat long body with short legs connected to long feet with omnidirectional wheels in them that seemed to allow it to rolled in any direction, two arms with hands over it, a pair of long cannon barrels on the back, and the word Wombat gratified on the side. They both looked like prototypes built out of scrap metal. “What the?” Narco said. The two machines lowered their legs settling into a deactivated mode and their engines shutdown. Two hatches popped open on the Razorback, one on the turret and one on the main body. Ceara popped out of the turret and Kali popped out of the body. “Aren’t they cool?!” Kali called out. On the Wombat a hatch opened and Cola popped out. “I still think they need a little work,” she said. There was a barking inside the Wombat. “Sorry Mutton,” she said. She pulled a switch in her cockpit. Another hatch in front of hers popped open and Mutton popped out of a seat built just for him. “Good dust you finished them? Last time you brought up the Razorback and the Wombat were just an idea,” Narco said. “They’re our parents too!” Cola said being uncharacteristically demanding. Narco slapped his head against his forehead and ran his fingers through his hair. “Where do these monstrosities stand combat wise?” he asked. “Well…” Kali said. “They only shoot water balloons. No one will sell us high powered weaponry,” Ceara said. “Of course,” Narco said pacing while running his fingers through his hair.  
                “Alright so we got four cars, four bikes, and two not so giant robots to get ready. Girls I’m going to need some plans for those monsters,” Narco said. The girls dove back into their hatches before popping back out with piles of blueprints. “Alright, jack up Slip Stream and the Rhino first. I assume they haven’t changed that much,” Narco said. “Pretty much but the body work on Slip Stream is a little thin,” Slick said. “Alright we’ll reinforce the body on Slip Stream and jack up the horsepower on the Rhino. Eligos should be fine but we’ll give her a once over to be sure. Give the bikes a going over. However, the mechs are going to need the most work. They’re unarmed, we need to replace the scrap metal plating, and frankly I’d like to give them a once over just to make sure you didn’t cut any corners,” Narco said. “When have we ever cut corners?” Kali asked sarcastically. “Let’s see the go carts you build when you were three and forgot to connect the steering column to the front axle so you drove straight into a canal, that engine you rebuilt when you were seven and you installed the wrong sized valves causing the thing to explode when we tried to fire it up, oh and let’s not forget last years when you tried doing maintenance on one of the car lifts and it gave out with a thirty thousand Lien car on it because you forgot to properly seal the hydraulic pistons,” Narco said. The girls laughed a little guiltily. “Found it!” they heard Slick call out. Narco looked over to see him digging through Narco’s workbench until he pulled out a music drive. “Check what I found,” Slick said as he took it over to the garage’s sound system and plugged it in. “It’s our old car overnighter playlist,” he said starting the music and a heavy metal song started (Fuel by Metallica). “Let’s get to work,” Narco said as he pulled a wrench out of his tool belt twirling it in his fingers.  
                They all got to work. Slick started stripping off the body so he could add armored plating under it. Arlind popped the hood on the Rhino and started working on the engine and started replacing the piston valves. Ringo, Lulu, and the members of team RWBY started helping Kali, Ceara, and Cola strip the scrap metal armor from their mechs so they could replace it with actual armor. Matt Started working on replacing some old components on Eligos and Narco took Maroon to his work bench. He pulled out a blueprint and unrolled it to reveal Maroon’s new motorcycle. “Alright so combat equipment. I thinking forward armored side fairings and forward wind shield, forward light machine guns say 45mm, and for a little more stomping power we’ll add a pair of 20mm grenade launchers. They’re light but they have pretty good stomping power,” Narco said drawing the additions onto the bike schematic. “I still feel like I may need a little more. What about this? We add vertical rocket launchers back hear,” she said drawing a pair of small missile silos on the sides of the back wheels replacing the saddle boxes. “You know the kind of rocket where you lock a target, the rocket launches up and then arcs over to its target.” “Alright we’ll add those, but we need to make this all modular. When this is over I want to be able to strip off the combat equipment when you don’t need it,” Narco said. “Alright you start stripping the bike and I’ll start designing the parts for the printer. They should take about two hours to fabricate,” Narco said.  
Everyone continued working late into the night eventually falling asleep at whatever they were doing. Arlind fell asleep at the wheel of the Rhino as he was working on the wiring in the console. Slick had fallen asleep on the hood of his car. Team RWBY, Kali, Ceara, and Cola had fallen asleep leaning against the mechs. Lulu had fallen asleep at a workbench where she had been assembling the parts that had been printed for the weapons for Maroon’s bike. Ringo fell asleep sitting in a stack of tires. Matt had fallen asleep on a dolly under Eligos working on the drive train. Maroon had passed out slumped over her new bike and Narco had fallen asleep on another dolly under the Beast. When morning broke Mutton stirred in his doghouse. The Rottweiler forced himself onto his feet and he walked past the pile of Matt’s dogs and Zwei asleep. Like he had done many times before Mutton found Narco asleep on a dolly under a car. He locked his jaw around a rope hanging out from the bottom of the dolly and pulled Narco out from under the car, still not waking him. Mutton then went to work licking Narco’s face waking him. “Hey, hey stop, Mutton I’m awake,” he said pushing the dog off and sat up. He looked to the shop clock to see it was about nine, they had been sleeping for maybe six hours. Narco decided to let the others sleep and he went upstairs to through together something quick for everyone to eat before they got back to work.  
                After everyone woke and ate, they got back to work. Narco had taken Kali, Ceara, and Cola into the blind to use the large video screen to talk to Beacon’s resident mech expert. On the other side of the screen sat Becky Oobleck pushing and spinning herself on a rolling chair holding up a printed out copy of plans to the Razorback Narco had sent emailed her between her and the camera. “Well structurally the designs appear sound, they still need some actual armor plating and weapons considering they appear to only shoot water balloons at the moment, but what’s with these measurements these cockpits couldn’t fit anyone older than twelve in them. Who the heck designed these things?” she asked as she lowered the plans. However, then she noticed Narco’s sisters standing with him and got the idea. “Oh. Anyway for armor I’d suggest at least a half inch of dust infused armored plating, and I’m going to send you plans for something I’ve been toying with that may come in handy. Oh and show it to Matt too, he’s been bugging me about this for his car,” she said as she sent Narco a file. He opened it up on a side screen looking at it. “Narco what is this?” Ceara asked. “You finally cracked it?” Narco asked Becky. “Regenerative dust composite armor. It finally realized trying to seal a whole was a lost cause. So I decided just get rid of the broken armor and replace it. The armor is all ablative designed like a lizard’s scales. As the armored plates are damaged, they will eject and metal dust generators will produce new plates to take their place,” Becky said. “Have you tested it,” Narco asked. “In a lab setting yes. The plating has proven to be nearly immune to small arms fire and able to withstand an RPG before breaking, several launcher grenades before breaking, or concentrated fire from a high caliber anti material weapon. As for regeneration, they plates will automatically eject themselves but they take ten seconds to regenerate, longer if its more than three plates in the same area because it will tax a single dust generator. However, if the damage is spread out across multiple regenerative areas it won’t slow down. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to test it in the field,” she said. “Thanks Becky,” Narco said. “Alright what are we thinking for weapons? I noticed the turret and the long guns on these two things,” Becky asked. “Nothing anti-armor. We just need something that can disable cars, bikes, and maybe the occasional person. “Alright then so any projectile we’ll stick with lightning dust and ice dust chalk rounds. Lightning will short out cars and ice will freeze joints and axles and freeze people solid. For the Razorback, I suggest light 15mm auto cannons on the arms. They have a five shot a second fire rate and will cut up a vehicle in a couple of shots. Then I’d fit the turret with a medium dust pulse cannon. Nothing too powerful but it will do the job. The Razorback is a pretty close range mech too so I’d fit it with some hands to let it grab on and rip other vehicles apart. As for the Wombat it seems to be more long range. The low center of gravity and cannon positioning screams artillery mech. For close range mount a pair of 9mm machine guns in each arm and then give her long range dust cannons on the back. Oh and make them variable output. Let her be able to change their power and maybe collapsible barrels so she can use them at shorter range. She’ll also need recoil struts. Something to dig into the ground so it doesn’t go flying when it fires a full powered shot,” Becky said. “Ay ya ya, this is going to be a lot of work and I got to finish the other cars,” Narco said running his hand through his hair stressing over the time frame. “I’ll tell you what Narco, leave you sister and we’ll draw up the plans for the printer,” Becky said. “How? You’re a day away,” Narco argued. Becky laughed a little “I’m here I’m there…” The screen went black. “I’m everywhere,” they heard behind them. They turned to see Becky. “How?” Narco asked. Becky snapped her finger and a digital table lowered from the ceiling going straight through Becky. “Haven’t you read the log book for the Blind? I install the hologram projection communication system two months ago,” she shad. Becky was back at Beacon in a room identical to the communications center on the Blind with all the same screens and the same digital table in the center. “The two rooms are synced so anything I do here will happen on the computers over there,” she said. “Alright get to it. Armor and weapons girls, we don’t have time to play around,” Narco said as he walked out.  
                As the day turned to night they continued to work. Lulu and Ruby had stripped cleaned and reassembled every weapon on the vehicles. Wiess and Slick had spent the day mixing nitro dust. Matt had been fiddling with the engine in Eligos because he had been feeling a shimmy when he hit sixty. He was taking the car for a test run after his latest adjustment. Luckily Narco’s family’s shop had a wide concrete canal running behind it that was dry during this time of year so Matt put his foot to the floor testing for the shimmy. Unfortunately he found the same problem and pulled back to the garage. “Dust I can’t shake it,” Matt cursed. “Still feeling that shimmy?” Narco asked. “Yeah, I’ve rebalanced the wheels three times already but it’s still there,” Matt said. “Does the shake feel like it’s all around you of just in your hands?” Slick asked closing the hood on his car. “In my hands,” Matt said. “Let me and Narco take a look I think I know what it is,” Slick said. “Alright, Its getting late, where’s the nearest pizza joint?” Matt asked. “Working dinner it is. Maroon is Wheelie’s Pizza still on Fourth Street?” Narco called to his sister. Maroon popped her head up from the far side of her bike with a wrench in her mouth. She took the wrench as she said, “Are you kidding? Rabid dogs could drive them out of there. No offense to the canines in the room.” Mutton popped his head up next to her holding a wrench in his mouth giving it to Maroon. “Thank you Mutton,” she said petting the dog as she took the wrench. “Alright I’ll go get the food. What should I order?” Matt asked. “Well you know what team RWBY likes, Lulu likes and Ringo likes. As for the rest of us just order the Grizzle Special and the heart attack in a box you call a pizza for yourself,” Narco said. “Grizzle special?” Matt asked. “They know what it means,” Narco said. “Alright,” Matt said. He ran out to the Blind grabbed his bike and took off in a wheelie to get the food.  
                As Matt left, Narco and Slick popped the hood on Eligos to find the problem with it. “Wow your buddy’s got good taste. But what’s all this other crap in here?” Slick asked. “Just be careful, those are machineguns,” Narco said leaning into the engine. “Slick grab a dolly and go under for me,” Narco said. Slick grabbed a dolly and rolled under the car with a flashlight. “You see what I see?” Narco asked. “Yeah your buddy must have jarred the steering column loose,” Slick said looking at the steering column that was swaying a bit but was still connected. “So Narco do we have a strategy for this?” Slick asked. “Well its pretty simple, we just have to tighten the column,” Narco said reaching in with a pair of wrenches and handing one to Slick through the engine. “No I mean for this race. Are you really going to put them on the track?” Slick asked. “I don’t like it either Slick. Maroon I’m pretty sure can hold her own, but the other three I have a plan for. We’re installing long range dust cannons on Cola’s machine. We’ll set her up at look out point looking towards the mountain with Kali and Ceara to cover her and they’ll provide fire support if we need it,” Slick said. “So we’re playing dirty?” Slick asked. “We’ve been playing dirty from the start. Why stop now?” Narco said.  
                While Narco and the others were preparing for the race, Cole and Glaucia were sitting in a makeshift prison cell made out of a cargo container and a bar door. As they were sitting there they heard the sound of footsteps. They looked to the shadows to see the silhouette of a young woman. “Why are you doing this?” Cole asked. The mysterious figure stepped back into the shadows. “Do you think Narco can save us?” Glaucia asked. “We just have to have faith in our son and his friends,” Cole said.  
Back at the Grizzle garage the next day, they were still working on the vehicles. Most of the work had already been done and they were mostly just working on paint and fine tuning. Luckily they were able to get the work done in time as the race was that night. “Hey guys look what I found in the storeroom,” Arlind said coming in with a cart containing a keyboard with built in turntables, bass guitar, guitar, and a drum set. “Ha, now there’s some memories,” Slick said. “Instruments?” Weiss asked. “Yeah on top of being a racing crew we were also a band. We would play at the racing meets,” Narco said. “Narco, you play the guitar? Oh this I got to hear,” Matt said. “Oh no I we couldn’t. We haven’t touched those in years, besides without Ayako it just wouldn’t sound right,” Narco said. Arlind put his hand on Narco’s shoulder. “We’ll slap some sense into her, even if we have to literally slap some sense into her,” Slick said.  
                They finished work on their vehicles just as the sun was setting. The race wasn’t till ten so everyone was busying themselves. As the sun set over Deus Ex Narco sat on the roof strumming at the electric guitar Arlind had found earlier. “Getting back in practice?” he heard behind him and looked back to see Slick and Arlind. “Just trying to get my mind off things,” Narco said leaning his guitar against the lounge chair he had been sitting on as he standing up. “Reminds me of the old days,” Arlind said as they came together. “Standing here psyching ourselves up before a big race, yeah it is. What was that little tradition we had again?” Slick asked. Narco took his welding goggles off his head and held them with the lenses over his knuckles and the strap bunched in his palm as he looked into the lenses. Slick and Arlind got the idea and did the same, Slick taking his goggles from around his neck and Arlind taking his from where they were strapped around his upper arm. They both looked into the lenses of their goggles. “Why do we turn that ignition? Why do hit that nitro? Why do we race until we just can’t race any further?” Narco asked. “For the adventures we find along the way,” he said. “For the honor of being the first over the finish line,” Arlind said. “For the challenge of becoming the best,” Slick said. They all looked to where Ayako would have been standing during this little ritual of theirs. In each of their minds they saw a phantom image of Ayako saying, “For the thrill of the ride as we max the engine.” Then all together they said, “And for the bonds it forges under the flames of our torches welding us together. Three… Two… One… WELDERS!” the called out as they knocked their goggles together and thrusted them towards the sky.  
                The old abandoned factory complex was abuzz with street racers. News of the big race had spread all across town and every racer in town had come out. Ayako and the Smash Punks were sitting around waiting for Narco and the others to show up. Ayako was sitting on the roof of her car Burn Out. It was styled after a 1937 ford hotrod with a complete body and a supercharger sticking out of the hood. It had a chrome grill and was black with multi-colored flames extending back from the grill and front wheel well spreading over the length of the car. Suddenly they heard the sound of an airship’s engines as the Blind floated down into the complex. The front hatch opened with the sound of powerful motors as The Beast, Eligos, the Rhino, Slip Stream, Bumblebee, Seedly, Kaiser, and Spitfire pulled out.  
                Narco stepped out of the Beast followed by Slick, Arlind and all the others. “Well this is a surprise. Slick, Arlind, I didn’t expect you two to be helping the traitor,” Ayako said. Narco and Ayako each stepped forward. They came within a foot of each other looking into each other’s eyes. Where are my parents?” he asked. “Nearby. I wouldn’t want to just tell you and have you just run off and save them without racing,” Ayako said. Narco looked deep into her eyes looking for some answer to what happened to his friend’s soul only to notice something was different. “What?” she asked. “Drop it, just be on the starting line in fifteen minutes,” Narco said as he turned and left her. “Narco what was that whole eye staring thing about?” Slick asked. “Something’s different about her. I noticed back at the warehouse. The way she walks, the is too feminine as if she was walking in heels, I’m pretty sure she swung that bat of hers left handed when she is supposed to be right handed, and I can’t be sure but I think the patterns in her eyes seemed different almost like a spiral,” Narco said. “Did you say spiral?” Matt asked. “Yeah?” Narco said wondering what the significance was. “Nothing let’s just get ready,” Matt said. “Alright, Ruby, Weiss and Blake jump in the Rhino with Arlind. Now let’s get the last minute tuning done,” Narco said and they split up. Narco took out his scroll and dialed a number. “Hey you girls ready?” he asked into the scroll. Up on a cliff overlooking the race course were the Razorback and the Wombat. “Yeah, Cola is just locking the Wombat into firing position,” Ceara said into her scroll. As she spoke to her brother the Wombat lowered on its legs and extended spikes into the ground stabilizing it for firing. “Alright but remember, DO NOT FIRE UNLESS ONE OF US TELL YOU TO! And only fire where we tell you to,” he said. “Yes Narco,” Ceara said. Narco hung up. As everyone split up to prepare Narco popped open his trunk and pulled out a beat up old red toolbox. “What’s that?” Slick asked. Something I thought I’d never use again. I just hope I don’t have to,” Narco said as he moved it into the cab behind the passenger seat.  
                After the preparations were complete Teams RWBY, MRLN, and the Welders moved to the starting line. Their they the starting line full of rows of thirty cars and forty-five motorcycles making it so the huntsmen and huntresses were forced to line up in last place. “Well this seems unfair,” Ruby said looking out the window of the Rhino. “Well expect things to get worse,” Arlind said as he typed into his car’s onboard computer checking the Rhino’s status. “What exactly are we supposed to do?” Weiss asked. “Just hold on, and hope things don’t come to that,” Arlind said.  
                The starting girl stepped out onto the bridge over the starting line. “Alright a I’ve read the rules on this race and I think its absolute suicide but it your funerals. One lap, from hear you’ll go you’ll exit the factory and race through town to the old Blackstone Quarry where you’ll race through the dirt roads and canyons and then through Mount Slate through one of the old mining tunnels. From there you’ll race through the woods to the rest stop thirty miles out of town where you will then pull onto the highway and speed 30 miles down the highway all the way back here to the finish line. Finally according to the rules aside from following the course and crossing the finish line there are no rules. So start your engines,” she said raising the starting flag. All the racers revved their engines. “Ready, Set, GO!” she yelled as she dropped the flag and all the cars took off.  
Right as the cars exited the factory complex one of the Smash Punk cars tried to slam into Matt but Matt hit his breaks so the Smash Punk passed in front of him before Matt pulled up along the other side. The Punk in the passenger seat popped out of the sunroof with an automatic rifle and opened fire at Matt’s car. Luckily Eligos is bullet proof. As the bullets bounced off the side to the car Matt hit a switch on his console. Several small hatches opened on the side of the car and short shotgun barrels extended out and opened fire pelting the Smash Punk car with birdshot causing it to roll of the road and crash. “They’ve got guns,” Matt said over the scrolls. “So do we,” Arlind said flipping a switch on his own console. The turret raised out of the roof of the turret raised out of the roof and a targeting display appeared on his heads up display. He used the thumb joystick on his wheel and aimed at a Smash Punk car in front of him. He pulled the trigger on the back of the wheel and the 40mm cannon fired blowing the enemy car into the air and off the road. He then targeted the next car with the machine guns but that car dodged. He tried again but the car dodged. “Dust it. Any of you three a good gunner?’ he asked the girls in the back of the Rhino. “I’m a sniper,” Ruby said. “Close enough. Theirs a hatch in the ceiling back there that comes up through the turret with a set of controls. Just turn it and pull the triggers, index for machine guns and thumb trigger for the 40mm gun. Oh and grab a pair of goggles back there. You don’t want dust flying into your eyes” Arlind said as he rounded a turn. Ruby grabbed a pair of goggles putting them on, found the hatch, and popped up through the hatch finding the controls. She turned the joystick testing the sensitivity and took aim opening fire.  
                Narco and Slick were holding speed side by side as a group of Smash Punk cars and motorcycles. “Hey Narco what kind of combat gear did you put in there anyway?” Slick asked. “None, I needed all the space and affordable weight I could get for something else,” Narco said as he pumped his shotgun. He flicked a tab on the pump and to extra handles unfolded. He rolled down his the windows and stuck his shotgun out the window locking the two handles on either side of the door so he could pump the gun with one hand. He fired and took out the tire on one of the Smash Punk cars causing it to run off the road. He pumped the weapon against the door and took out another car. Slick hit a button on his console and spikes extended out of his wheels and a large push bar ram unfolded up from under the car. He bumped into the corner of another Smash Punk car causing it to spin out before he rammed into the side of another car causing his wheel spikes to jam into the car tearing up the side of the enemy car and destroying its tires. He then leaned out his window with one of his pistols and fired a volley. The rounds were full of ice dust and on impact large ice crystals began to grown jamming up the car’s back axle causing it to skid to a halt. Then Slick heard a thud on the roof of his car as they drove under a mining conveyor belt. “Slick you got a hitchhiker,” Narco said looking at a pair Smash Punk who had jumped off the conveyor belt and on top of his Slip Stream. Slick clicked a switch on his gas pedal locking it where it was and leaned out the window with one of his revolvers in its crowbar mode using it to block the swings of their baseball bats.  
                “Anyone want to give me a hand?” Slick asked struggling to defend himself and stay on the road. “I got you in my sights,” Ringo said as she clicked a switch on her handlebars. A mechanical arm that was holding her boomerang in place next to the rear wheel swung the weapon over her shoulder as it unfolded into is full sniper rifle form and locked it into a mount on the handle bars with the butt of the weapon against her shoulder as she put her eye to the scope and took aim. However, she was having trouble lining up a shot on and still balance the bike. “Dust it how does Matt aim like this?” Ringo asked thinking out loud. “Hit the switch next to the weapon switch,” Matt said. Ringo flicked the switch and a network of devices in the bike whirled to life and suddenly the bike seemed to stabilize itself. “Oh that good,” she said as she lined up her shot and took out one of the Smash Punks attacking Slick sending him flying off the car. The sudden attack distracted the remaining thug and Slick was able to knock him off the car.  
As the race pushed on they reached the canyons. The canyons were not too wide, only about the width of four cars making passing very difficult as they wove their way through the tight turns. “Girls how many cars are behind us?” Matt asked the three youngest Grizzle sisters. “I’d say about five cars and eight bikes,” Cola said looking at her screen. “Alright everyone pull in front of me,” Matt said as he slid to the back of his teammates. “Matt what are you doing?” Weiss asked. Matt flicked a switch and the license plate folded down and a device began scattering a wide field of razor sharp caltrops across the canyon floor causing the cars and bikes behind them to blow out their tires. “Nice one,” Narco said.  
                “Focus boys,” Lulu said as she flicked the weapon switch on her handle bars and the mechanical arm swung her weapon Skull Breaker up over her shoulder and locked it onto a mounting point along the side of the front fender. She pulled the trigger on her handle bars and the machine gun fired taking out a Smash Punk motorcycle in front of her. Another Smash Punk on a bike pulled up next to her swinging an axe at her head. Lulu ducked under the blade and drew her heavy pistol converting it to its knife form. She slashed the Smash Punks brake line and then gave him a swift kick causing him to slam into the side of the canyon unable to stop without his brakes.  
                As the racers moved through the canyon Narco was surprised at how well Maroon was doing. As she closed in on a pack of Smash Punk motorcycles, she flicked the switch on her handlebars and two hatches in the front side fairings extending a pair of machine guns. She pulled the trigger and fired taking out a pair of bikes. Then one of the Smash Punks turn on his bike aiming a shotgun behind him firing at her. She dropped her bike to the side drifting under the shots before she righted herself. She then used the thumb joystick on her handlebars and the heads up display Narco built into her goggles to lock onto a three cars in front of her. She pulled a trigger on the handlebars and three vertical launch rocket propelled grenades launched straight up before taking a curving arc down onto the three targeted cars striking them in the trunks and blowing off their rear axles. Another couple of Smash Punk bikes came up next to her and swung a crowbar at her. She ducked before swinging herself around on her handlebars kicking the rider off his bike. Another pulled up to take his place with a sub machinegun aiming at her. Acting quick she unpacked her wrench Torque Grip. She swung it up so the Smash Punk’s SMG was caught in the jaw and pulled the trigger. The shotgun fired not only slamming the jaw closed crushing the gun but the blast hit another Smash Punk. She then dropped back behind them as she flipped the switch that raised the two twenty millimeter grenade launchers up on either side of her. She pulled the trigger firing several airburst grenades. Even those that didn’t hit one of the bikers exploded next to one knocking them from their bikes. She thought she was in the clear for a second but a Smash Punk car snuck up behind her. Two Smash Punks with automatic rifles leaned out of the two backseats windows aiming for Maroon. They were about to fire when Matt rammed into their back bumper throwing off their aim so they missed. Matt then quickly pulled just in front of them. He hit a switch and two strips were released being dragged behind the Eligos. Matt turned hard cutting across the front of the Smash Punks’ car causing them to drive into the spike strip blowing out their tires followed fire raising his missile turret and firing at them to blow them off the road. He retracted the spike strips and pulled up next to Maroon. “I’ll admit, you got some skills, you need to work on situational awareness but you got skill,” he said over the scrolls to Maroon. “I’m not that good,” she said blushing. “When this is all over remind me to give you an early entrance form, we may just have a spot for you next semester,” he said. “Matt I don’t even have a semblance,” she said. “Maroon a semblance does not make you a huntress. One of the girls’ class mates still hasn’t found his. Heck he hadn’t even unlocked his aura until his partner did it for him during the initiation. Give it time, a semblance tends to come to you when you need it most,” he said before pulling forward. “And this doesn’t qualify?” she mumbled under her breath.  
                As they continued towards the end of the canyon four of the Smash Punks managed to separate Slick from the others. Four cars surrounded him. “Guys I got a problem,” he said into his scroll. Narco blasted another Smash Punk off a motorcycle and leaned out the window to get a better look. The Smash Punk car behind Slick struck Slip Stream’s back bumper. It struck again and Slick’s back bumper came loose followed by one of the punks to his left shot out one of his tires. “Guys I got a blow out,” Slick said. “Slick you’re going to have to ditch the car. Set it in auto drive and it should pull itself back to the back of the pack and stop. We’ll get it later. Matt Slip Stream is going to need an exit,” Narco said. “Clear some space. Lulu give me a rocket in tail of the back car,” Matt said as his friendly drivers backed off. Lulu flipped a weapon switch on her handle bars and the manipulator arm disconnected Skull Breaker from its mount on the front fender and swung it up onto her shoulder converting it to its rocket launcher form. She drifted around Matt firing at the back Smash Punk car blowing off its back axle. Matt then quickly followed that by launching a grappling hook from his front bumper and then hit his handbrake as he turned the wheel. The Eligos spun and tore the enemy car away slamming it into the side of the canyon as the cable disconnected. Matt straightened out his car as he deployed his forward ram. It was an obtuse triangle in shape similar to a locomotive cow catcher with solid armor plating and spikes. Matt hit his nitro and his car quickly accelerated ramming into the car left of Slick causing the enemy car to spin out. Slick flipped a switch on his console and the auto drive system activated. “Matt keep her steady I’m coming over,” Slick said as her climbed out his window onto the roof of his car. As Slip Stream began to slow down Slick leaped off his car onto the roof of Eligos. He used his semblance to increase the friction of his feet on the roof so he could stand even in the intense wind of traveling at sixty miles an hour. Slip Stream automatically slowed itself down as the other cars wove around it. Slick looked back to see another Smash Punk car closing on them. “Matt keep her steady,” Slick said. He jumped backwards off the back of the car. He converted one of its pistols to its chain for whipping it out so it locked onto the spoiler of the Eligos. As his feet hit the road he used his semblance cancelling out friction on his feet and he slid along the ground as if he was skiing. He slid up beside the enemy car and disconnected his chain as he jumped onto the enemy car sticking to it. He drew his other pistol shooting the driver with and ice dust round freezing him. As the car slammed into the side of the canyon he jumped of the car and ran along the canyon wall before pushing off. He landed on another car where he fired both pistols into the engine block killing it. He jumped off and slid along the ground. Another Smash Punk car came up alongside him and he stabbed his crowbar into the car’s body so it pulled him along as he shot out the tires. He pulled the trigger on the crowbar so the shot forced it out of the car body. As he continued to slide he whipped out his chain grabbing onto another car. He swung around the back of the car shooting out its back tires before jumping up onto Narco’s car. From there he swung himself down into the passenger window into the passenger seat. As he settled into the seat he found the side of Narco’s shotgun in his face as the Beacon mechanic shot a Smash Punk on a bike that was about to shoot Slick. “Nice,” Slick said catching his breath.  
Yang was riding along as she reached a pack of Smash Punk bikes. She unpacked her gauntlets and started throwing punches sending long range shots flying at the pack. Most of the Smash Punks dodged them but she managed to take out one. However, she started to wobble from not having her hands on the handles. “Yang pop back here,” Arlind said. Yang slowed down a bit bringing her back to the Rhino. Ruby gunned down another car as Arlind locked a target on another pair of cars. He pulled the trigger on the wheel and missile launchers extended from hatches in the doors and fired blowing out the backs of the targeted car. “Blake grab one of those helmets back there, a grenade belt and jump over with Yang. She can ride and shoot at the same time,” Arlind said. Blake grabbed a black modular helmet and grenade belt and opened the side door. She jumped over onto Bumblebee standing on the back fender balancing herself against Yang before dropping onto the seat. Yang pulled up close to a Smash Punk bike and Blake drew her sword converting it to its gun form. She fired and blew out his tire causing him to crash. She then connected her ribbon as she popped to her feet on the rear fender. She threw it out and it knocked another Punk off his bike before she swung it around knocking another one off before pulling it back. “Yang get me in close to that pack of cars,” Blake said. Yang pulled up next to a Smash Punk car and Blake jumped on top as she converted her gun back to its sword form. A Smash Punk popped out of the sunroof with a hatchet swinging it at her. She jumped over the blade as she pulled a grenade of the belt she had hanging over her shoulder, the pin automatically coming off. She threw the grenade into the sunroof and jumped onto the next car as it exploded with ice dust. She slashed another Smash Punk sticking out of the sunroof with her sword as she threw another grenade into the car jumping to another chucking another grenade into it. She then jumped onto the last car slashing a man in the sunroof as she crossed the roof and jumped onto the back fender of Yang’s bike who was waiting on the far side of the group as she chucked a grenade into the driver side window. As the grenades systematically blew with ice dust freezing the occupants and disabling the cars as Blake and Yang continued on.  
                “Were closing on the tunnels, everyone got their compasses?” Narco asked. Everyone acknowledged. “Alright remember there is only one exit on the other side. Just be sure you keep going east. Also we’ll probably going to loose contact in there. Mount Slate is full of metals that will disrupt communications, and no heavy ordinance. We don’t want to bring the mountain down on top of us. Small arms only, no cannons, no rockets, or any explosives. “How many behind us?” Matt asked. “Five cars, nine bikes,” Weiss said looking at a tracking readout on a screen in the Rhino. “Cola when we’ve all entered the tunnels fire on the tunnel entrance, target coordinates 2.53 by 3.7,” Matt said. “Got it,” Cola said as she altered her cannon angle. As the huntsmen vehicles entered the tunnels Cola pulled the trigger and two large balls of dust energy fired out of the back cannons striking the tunnel entrance just as the Rhino passed through it and the tunnel entrance collapsed preventing any other vehicles from entering.  
The network of tunnels in Mount Slate was like a spider web with various tunnels connected at various junctions. Once the pack of racers entered the tunnels they scattered most of them taking different paths to the same exit. Narco, Slick, and Maroon where running down the quickest path that they had mapped out before. For them the race was going rather peacefully at the moment as they had yet to run into any Smash Punks in the tunnels. Maroon pulled up close next to Narco’s driver side window. “Hey bro when did you get your semblance?” She asked. “What brought this up?” he asked. “Matt told me a semblance tends to come to you when you need it the most,” Maroon said. “Well I guess that is technically true. I was fifteen and I had ticked off the wrong bully at school. That afternoon he and his little gang chased me into a dead-end alley. I thought I they were going to kill me but as I backed up as they advanced on me I ended up backing straight into a shadow and then came out of a shadow behind them. I didn’t realize what had happened until later, I just ran for it,” Narco said.  
                As Narco finished a group of Smash Punks came out of and intersection firing at them. “Watch out!” Slick said as he flipped himself out of the window onto the roof of the Beast and returned fire at the Smash Punks. Maroon drew her wrench pointing it at the Smash Punks Behind her and fired back. The exchange of fire continued until they reached the next intersection. There a Smash Punk on a bike came out of no where and struck Maroon with a bat sending her flying of the back of her bike and triggering the auto ride system on her bike.  
                “Maroon!” Narco yelled out to his sister. As she flew through the air time seemed to move in slow motion as she thought to herself. “This can’t be the end. I never got to be a huntress, I never got to finish a race, heck I never even got my semblance” she thought to herself. Then Matt’s words resonated in her head, “A semblance tends to come to you when you need it most.” In her head she said, “A semblance tends to come to you when you need it most, huh,” she thought. “Well if this doesn’t count I don’t know what will. Come on, come on…” “COME ON!” she yelled. Suddenly her maroon colored aura surged over her body. As she flew back she flipped over so her back was facing the direction she was flying. The suddenly two glyphs formed on the tool bag on her back hips and jets of thrust fired out slowing her down till she landed on her feet. “What the?” she said stunned at what just happened until the Smash Punks blew past her. “Oh no you don’t,” she said. She took a knee. She put her hand to the ground, “Come on you did it once just…” suddenly a larger glyph about four feet wide formed under her and erupted thrust downward. The glyph hovered of the ground with Maroon on it. “Oh yeah, this will do,” she said as she leaned forward and the thrust angled keeping her aloft while pushing her forward at great speed. “Yahoo!”  
                As Maroon rocketed back towards the Smash Punks, Slick saw the dust cloud Maroon was kicking up. “What the… Narco take a look at this,” Slick said. Narco looked in his side mirror and smiled, “That a girl.” Maroon rocketed up towards the first Smash Punk bike, her wrench in hand. She spun on the glyph swinging her wrench and knocked him off his bike. From there she extended the shaft of the wrench and locked the jaw around the middle of another bikes’ handlebars and fired the shotgun not only blasting the bike next to it but also tearing away the bikes handlebars. She let the recoil flow and used it to propel her swing using it to throw the crushed handlebars at another Smash Punk knocking him off his bike. She then jumped onto a Smash Punk car converting her wrench. The jaw opened all the way and an axe blade unfolded before the jaw slammed down holding it in place. She formed a thrust glyph on the back of the axe and swung it down with such force it went through the hood and tore into the engine. She then pulled the axe loose converting it back to its shotgun form as she leaped off the car as it’s engine burst into flames. As she flew off she formed two glyphs on the back of her back and ran along the wall firing at another Smash Punk car taking out its tires before jumping off the wall and landing on her feet on the seat of her bike Spitfire and then jumped down into the seat taking back control. “That a girl Sis,” Narco said.  
                Luckily the tunnels were not as long as the canyon and they exited them into the forest roads on the other side. As they race continued Ayako was not happy. “Boss they’ve already taken out half our racers, we can’t seem to stop them,” a Smash Punk said over the scroll to Ayako. She groaned. Ayako then dialed a new number into her scroll and someone picked up. “Send in the big boys,” she said and hung up.  
                As they continued down the wide old abandoned forest roads Blake heard a something behind them. She turned her head and her eyes went wide. “Uh Yang what is that?” she said pointing back. Yang looked in her rear view mirror to see a four semi-trucks covered in armored plating with exhaust stacks billowing smoke. The trucks lined up drafting to accelerate. “Everyone scatter!” Yang yelled as the Semis advanced and everyone pulled to the sides before they were run over. As the semis passed, hatches opened up on the sides of the trailer and Smash Punks inside stuck guns through them opening fire. “Woah!” Matt yelled as he hit his breaks dropping back out of the field of fire. “Now they are really playing dirty!”  
                Narco gunned his accelerator struggling to stay ahead of the big rigs. “Slick take the wheel,” Narco said as he clicked the lock on the gas pedal. He flipped himself up out of the driver side window and Slick rushed to take the driver’s seat. “Get me close to the front of the lead rig,” Narco ordered. Slick released the pedal lock and slowed just long enough for the Beast to pull close to the front of a rig. Narco drew his shotgun converting it to its chainsaw sword mode and leaped onto the front of the rig. As he landed he pulled the trigger for the chainsaw firing up the teeth and dug it into the hood giving him a hand hold. He then jumped up over the cabin and onto the top of the trailer. He spun up the chainsaw again and dug it into the roof cutting a hole in it before converting to the shotgun and jumped into the dark trailer. All that could be heard from inside the trailer was gunfire and the motor of a chainsaw before the back of the semi blew open with several Smash Punks flying out. The last Smash Punk in the trailer scuttled backwards towards the edge as Narco approached. “You got two choices boy, jump or…” Narco spun up the chainsaw. “Wait I know where the Grizzles are!” the Smash Punk said raising his hands to defend himself. Narco lowered the chainsaw letting the blade stop. Narco grabbed him by the collar pulling him to his feet and looked him in the eye as he growled “Where?!” “They’re in one of the rigs,” the punk said. “Which one?!” Narco ordered. “I don’t know. They all look the same,” the punk said. Narco threw the Smash Punk out of the trailer landing in the windshield of another Smash Punk car causing it to crash. “Narco I have a shot on one of the big rigs. Do you want me to take it out?” Cola asked. “No, everyone hold fire on the rigs. My parents are in one of these trailers,” Narco said over the scrolls. “What?!” Kali said.  
                Matt flipped a switch and three of his talons launched out of the talon bays. Each one found one of the trailers stabbing into the roofs. Once stabbed in the blades opened extending cameras. The camera feeds played on the screen in his dashboard. As he looked into the trailers he saw what he was looking for, Narco’s parents tied together back to back. “I found them. They’re in the rig furthest back,” Matt said as he hit his breaks and dropped back to the last trailer and next to the Rhino as he flipped the auto drive function and his car began to cruise next to the armored vehicle. He then climbed out the window onto the roof of his car and jumped onto the top of the Rhino. “Arlind get me in close to back of that trailer,” Matt said as he unpacked his gauntlets and claws. Arlind pulled close to the back of the trailer and Matt leaped onto the side digging his claws into the scrap armor on the side of the trailer like it was balsa wood. He scurried up the side of the trailer onto the roof. He ran towards the deepest end on the trailer skidding to a stop right over where the Grizzle were tied up and spun on his hands as an axis as his foot claws dug into the roof opening a large hole. The Smash Punks tried to react but before they could Matt slammed his open palm on the ground forming a glyph for his stormlings and wolves made of lightning leaped from the glyph attacking the Smash Punks. With the precious seconds he had obtained Matt spun back to the Grizzles. He slashed the ropes holding them with his claws and pulled them onto the piece of roof he cut out to get in. “Hold on!” he said as a glyph formed on his hand and the piece of roof magnetized quickly raising up through the hole lifting the three of them out. “Matt what’s going on?!” Glaucia demanded to know as she shielded her eyes from the rushing wind. “We’re in the middle of a race for the fate of Deus Ex. Other than that not much,” Matt said sarcastically. “Arlind pull up alongside I got two packages for pick up. Arlind pulled up to the back of the trailer as Matt and the Grizzles ran tot eh back edge of the trailer. Cole and Glaucia looked down to see the Rhino. “You don’t expect us to jump do you?!” Cole asked in disbelief. Matt was behind them with his sword scythe Storm Reaper opened into its shield form in one hand and one of his Seraph SMGs in the other firing at Smash Punks that had followed them out of the hole. “We don’t have time to debate this!” Matt said. He stopped firing and used his gun hand to flip up his jacket letting four of his Talons fly out. They all opened there blades into grasping claws and grabbed the two Grizzles by the shoulders forcing the over the edge and guided them onto the roof where Ruby pulled them in through the turret. Matt tapped a button on his scroll on his belt and Eligos pulled up taking the Rhino’s place behind the trailer and opened the convertible top. Matt recalled his talons and them jumped of the trailer into his car’s driver seat closing the roof just as the Punks reached the edge of the trailer and opened fire. “Guys the Grizzles clear. They’re in the Rhino,” Matt said.  
“Thanks Matt,” Narco said as he ran along the back of the trailer as he reached the main truck. He jumped onto the hood digging his chainsaw deep into the hood piercing the engine causing all kinds of fluids to leak before he leaped forward onto the roof of the Beast converting Chop Shop to its shotgun form. As he landed on his car he spun around aiming at the truck’s engine and fired a fire dust round. On impact the dust ignited and the flames it caused ignited to fluids that had leaked onto the engine causing it to burst into flames. The Rig lost control and ran of the road into a grove of trees. Slick scooted back to the passenger seat as Narco flipped into the window and took back his wheel. He then leaned out with his shotgun about to take out a Smash Punk bike in front of him when a burst of machine gun fire flew by taking the bike out and Lulu pulled up next to him. “Kill hog,” he said. “Grease monkey,” she said back playfully. “Guys there’s an old short cut up ahead. Me and Narco are going to try to catch up to Ayako. Try to take out those rigs,” Narco said. “Girls,” Narco said addressing his three youngest sisters. “Yeah Narky?” Ceara asked. “Time to get up close and personal,” he said. The three girls smiled to themselves and Mutton barked in his seat. Cola uprooted her mech and the two small mechs jumped of the side of the angled cliff sliding down it towards the track below. “Hang on Slick this is going to be bumpy,” Narco said as he flipped a switch in his console. The Beast’s body began to rise up as hydraulics increased the vehicles suspension for rough terrain. Narco turned and the Beast pulled off the track crashing through a rotting wood gate onto a terribly rough dirt road full of roots growing through it, rocks, and other debris.  
                “Aright then, the rear rig’s mine,” Matt said as he flipped a set of switches in his dashboard. As he did hatches and ports opened across Eligos and the rocket turret raise out of the back, the forward machine guns raised from the hood, the forward ram unfolded, and the broadside guns extended. Matt launched a pair of grappling harpoons into the doors of the trailer before he hit his breaks and the doors tore off. Acting fast Matt hit his gas again catching up and fired his forward machine guns into the back of the truck mowing down the men inside. He then pulled alongside the wheels of the trailer and fired the broadside guns causing them to blow out. Finally he raced up in front of the truck rotating his turret aiming at the grill and fired two rockets that blew up the engine. As the truck wobbled it was about to jackknife and block the road but Matt launched several talons from the talon bays that slashed and blasted all the connections between the truck and the trailer so the trailer came off and skidded to a halt.  
As Matt finished off his rig, the Grizzle sisters’ mechs burst through the trees onto the road. The Razorback was in its acceleration mode with its legs fold down and omnidirectional wheels were extended and the main body was lowered closer to the ground cutting down on wind resistance. As for the Wombat it was in its racer mode. The main body was lowered closer to the ground and the legs were slide back. Wheels extended from the forearms that were lowered to the ground and the main cannons had be collapsed down and pulled close to the top cutting down on wind resistance turning the mech into a small car. The two mechs speed past the other racers and up to the two remaining semis, the twins in the Razorback taking the rear one while Cola caught up with the other. The Smash Punks in the trailer of the rear truck focused all their fire power on the Razorback blasting it with all their guns. The armored plating started to ding and chip before panels began to break. Kali hit the breaks slowing down out of their fire. In the seconds of relief from the bombardment the damaged armored plates ejected from the hull of the mech and the metal dust generators activate. The generators began rapidly forming new armored plates that took the places of the damaged ones. “Let’s wreck them!” Kali said. She turned her joysticks and the mech turned to face the side of the trailer moving sideways at the same speed. The mech accelerated and ran down the side of the trailer with Kali firing the auto cannons in the arms pelting the scrap armored plating before they started piercing through. Ceara targeted her turret as she fired blasts of Fire dust that pierced the armor like a hot knife through butter punching holes in the side. As they reached the trailer hitch Kali blasted the hitch severing the trailer as she spun an outward three quarter circle facing forward on the road as Ceara blasted the engine block melting it disabling the truck. A group of cars pulled up and Smash Punks popped out of the sun roofs with rifle but before they could fire Kali blasted the rear axle off the front car as Ceara blasted the engine of another. Kali then flipped a switch and two big mechanical hands flipped into place on the arms that she used to grab the front of the last car. She put the Mech’s muscle into it and flipped the whole car over causing it to fall on top of the car behind it.  
                As the twins were doing that Cola had converted the Wombat back to its assault mode. With the front hands free she targeted her machine guns and began pelting the trailer with bullets. Unfortunately, her 9mm machine guns didn’t have enough stomping power to pierce the armor. Switching to plan be she turned the thumb joystick on one of her control sticks. The cannons on the back raise up but kept their barrels short and didn’t attach the secondary energy reactors needed for long range high powered shots. She turned the guns so the barrels were pointed at an angle down he side of the trailer. “Now Mutton!” she called to the dog. In his dog seat Mutton reach forward and grabbed onto a bone on a cord. He pulled it back and the cannons fired firing a spread shot of ice dust energy super freezing them making the armor brittle. Cola switch ammunition. “Fire!” The dog pulled the bone again and the cannons fired a barrage of electric dust pellets like buckshot not only shattering the now brittle armor but shocking several of the Smash Punks inside. Cola then switched back to the machine guns and pelted the rest of them with bullets. “Everyone go! I’m going to make a roadblock!” Cola called out. No one questioned what she met, all the huntsman and huntress racers just speed past getting in front of the truck. Cola pulled out in front of the truck and spun the Wombat around so she was driving backwards. She flipped a switch and the main cannons extended their barrels and the secondary reactors flipped up and locked into place. The driver of the truck could see straight down the barrels of the cannons to see a massive energy build up forming. Fearing for his own life the driver leaped from the cab of the truck rolling as he landed as Cola called the dog, “Fire!” Again Mutton pulled his bone and the full power of the cannons was unleashed. The dust energy blast engulfed the entire truck and continued on striking several other cars and bikes behind it. The front end of the struck stopped suddenly and the inertia caused the trailer to snap of its hitch slamming into the cab and flipping so the back was pointed straight up. Cola swerved to dodge the falling trailer as it came down landing across the road and with how tight the trees were to the road impossible for any more vehicles to pass through it. Cola spun back around converting the Wombat into its racer mode catching up with the others.  
                “Matt’s there’s a straight away coming up. We should use it to catch up with the front pack,” Arlind said. “Right we’ll use the nitro dust,” Matt agreed. “Matt the bikes don’t have nitro,” Lulu said. Matt flipped a set of switches in his dashboard. Several of the grappling hook launchers extended out but didn’t launch out. “Grab on,” Matt said. The four bike riders got the idea. They each road up close to Matt’s car and grabbed a grappling hook hooking it to their bikes. “What about the mechs? They’re way to heavy for either of us to pull,” Arlind asked. “Don’t worry, we can keep up. Alight girls go for the Grizzly,” Kali said. The girls maneuvered themselves so the Wombat was right behind the Razorback. Cola pulled closer until she bumped into the back of the Razorback and mechanical clasps locked the two together. The Razorback’s auto cannons moved up and lock onto the turret coming off the arms and the turret slid back onto the Wombat. The Wombat’s arms migrated onto the turret and the turret reshapes to become something similar to a human upper body giving it control of most of the machines’ weapons. Inside the cockpits also began to change. All movement controls moved to Kali while Ceara got all weapons control and Cola’s station sprouted more screens of read outs so she could monitor the machine’s functions. When it had finished, it resembled a tank a little. “What the?” Arlind said. “We can get two hundred miles an hour out of the Grizzly,” Kali said. “Aright then let’s hit it. Hold on girls,” Matt said as he hit his nitro dust button and the Eligos rocketed forward down the straight away pulling along the four bikes. Arlind did the same and Kali opened up her accelerator soon catching up with the others.  
                In Ayako’s car a voice came across her scroll, “Boss they took out all the trucks and blocked the road. You and the boys you got are all that’s left.” “Agh!” she yelled as she slammed her fist on the wheel. Just then The Beast came flying out of some bushes having caught up through the shortcut. Narco lowered the body down from its hydraulic and began advancing on Ayako. “Dust it!” she cursed. She turned to a Smash Punk sitting shotgun holding a rifle. He was meant to be a gunner for her but instead she said, “Take the wheel.” She rolled down her window and slid out onto the roof with her bat in hand as the Smash Punk took the wheel. “Narco…” Slick said. “No I started this, I’ll end it,” Narco said as he rolled down his window. He flipped himself out onto the roof as Slick took the wheel and drew his shotgun.  
Slick began to advance on Ayako’s car but she converted her bat to its grenade launcher form and opened fire on them. Slick reacted quickly and turned to dodge the shots as Narco struggled to stay on top as he dropped to his knee grabbing onto a handle he had in the roof. “Slick just push forward. I’ll take care of the shots,” Narco said as he started loading new shotgun shells into Chop Shop. Slick did as he was told and advanced straight at Ayako’s car. She fired at them again but Narco acted fast aiming in the direction of the shots firing fire dust bird shot shells. The dozens of super-heated metal pellets proved to much for the grenade shells causing their explosive charges to detonate in mid-air and they exploded before they could reach the Beast. “Slick, lock hooks, under the hydraulics!” Narco called to him. Slick found the switch and flipped it. Two large harpoon like hooks extended from the grill. Slick understood what they were for and rammed straight into the rear of Ayako’s car. The hooks locked into the rear bumper of the car and locked them together.  
                Narco converted Chop Shop to its chainsaw sword mode and leapt forward at Ayako swinging it at her. She quickly brought up her bat blocking it before Narco spun low trying to sweep her legs out from under her, but she jumped dodging before swinging down on him. He jumped out to the side of the car drawing his chain and whipped it into the side of her car swinging him around behind her. He went to Slash at her back when she activated her semblance. Her ponytails came to life moving like tentacles and lashed out striking Narco with the maces on the ends. Narco began to struggle to block all of them as the ponytails were reaching around his guard. He converted his weapon to is glaive form and spun it around in front of him. The glaive spun with the chainsaw running and he managed to chop of two of her ponytails before she pulled them all back. The cut ponytails withered a little before shrinking back into her head and hanging limp. Ayako jumped forward swinging her bat again at Narco. She struck his glaive forcing it down and used her remaining ponytails to latch onto him. She swung him around and threw him back onto the hood of his own car. She converted her bat to its grenade launcher form and took aim to finish him off. He acted fast converting Chop Shop to its shotgun form and they both fired at the same time. The shots collided mid air and the blast caused the lock hooks to snap off. Just as they reached the end of the woods.  
                Just as they pulled onto the last stretch of the race, the straight highway highway the Beast’s engine stopped. Slick pulled over and Narco rolled off the hood. “What happened?” Slick asked. Narco popped open the hood and looked in. “Primary igniter came off,” he said slamming the hood shut. “Oh Dust, she won’t run without that,” Slick cursed. Just then Matt and the others blew by having caught up. “Narco what’s wrong?” Matt asked over the scrolls. “Just keep going,” Narco said. He walked to the driver side door. “Move over,” he said. Slick listened and moved over. “Narco we’re screwed. Without the igniter the car won’t start let alone run,” SLcik said. Narco started flipping several switches. He reached under the dash and turned a hidden nob before flipping several switches, tuning the radio to a certain station and turning on the emergency lights. “What are you doing?” Slick asked. “I said the primary igniter is gone. I never said it was the only one,” Nacro said as he put the car in fourth gear and the whole thing roared to life again with all the switches he had flipped returning to normal. He put the car in gear and did a circling burn out as they took of down the road after the other. “Remember how I always kept forgetting where my keys were? I eventually got fed up with it and installed a second igniter that only activated when you put the car in fourth gear while the proper combination is set,” Narco said. “Narco you’re a genius,” Slick said.  
                They barreled down the road at a hundred and fifty miles an hour. “Narco I don’t think we’re going to make it. Even with nitro dust they have to big a lead,” Slick said. “No, we have one trick left,” Narco said. He flipped open a compartment in the center console to reveal a set of switches with red guard covers. One by one Narco flipped them. As he did the car began to change. The body across the car split into section shifting into a more aerodynamic shape, downforce fins extended from the sides and a spoiler raised out of the back, the front grill opened to reveal a large jet engine intake and the rear bumper and trunk opened extending two large jet thrusters that started to warm up. Slick looked at Narco as the car changed, “You didn’t.” “Oh yes I did,” Narco said. “I thought this was just a theory you had when we were kids. Please tell me you have at least tested it,” Slick said. “Completely untested and possibly explosive,” Narco said. “Narco You’re a mad man,” Slick said. The top of the skull on gear ship flipped open revealing a glowing red button. “Slick what is it I always say?’ Narco asked. A song started playing over the cars speakers. It was a song that never failed to get Narco and Slick’s motors running hot for racing (Eyes of the Panther by Steel Panther). Narco wrapped his hand around the knob with his thumb over the button. “Live fast…” Slick started. “Live free…” Narco continued. Slick wrapped his hand around the other side of the gear shift with his own thumb over the button next to Narco’s. Then together the yelled, “OR DIE TRYING!” They slammed their thumbs down together on the button right as the song hit the chorus. The now hot engines kicked into maximum burn and they accelerated going from a hundred and fifty miles and hour to three hundred in less than three seconds. Narco and Slick were slammed into the backs of their seats as Narco struggled to keep the car straight.  
                The remaining huntsmen cars were doing their best to catch up to Ayako but they were being blocked by a group of Smash Punk cars lined up across the road. “Matt I need a the center groove,” Narco came over the scrolls. “Narco you got you car going?” Matt asked. “You got ten seconds hurry,” Narco said before the line went dead. “How is he supposed to catchup?” Lulu asked. Matt thought for a second before realizing what Narco was doing. “Everyone clear the center lane!” Matt yelled. Acting quickly he raised his forward machine guns and rocket launcher. He blasted the two center cars in the line blowing off their back axles. As they started to skid hat unbacked the Eligos’s forward ram. It was large and wide like an armored cow catcher with spikes sticking forward. Matt slammed into the two cars causing them to slip down the sides of the ram. Matt launched his two side grappling hooks out locking into the smash punk cars and then hit his e-brake pulling a drift turn. As he spun his car dragged to two Smash Punk cars along before he hit his rear jump hydraulics. This caused the two Smash Punk cars to fly up with the rear of Matt’s car and he whipped them across the road like a flail slamming them into the remaining cars plowing them all off the road. As he was spinning he could see the exhaust trail of the Beast approaching fast. Just as his tail end landed and he straighted his car, Matt hit the jump hydraulics again causing his whole car to fly up into the air just high enough for the Beast to pass under it before landing in the other cars dust cloud. As the dust cleared and the others could see again, Ruby asked, “What the Dust was that?!” “Victory,” Matt said.  
                Ayako was continuing done the track. “Just fifteen more miles,” she said to herself smugly as she check the rear view. Then her heart dropped. There she saw Narco and Slick closing in on her. “Dust it!” she cursed as she hit all of her nitro dust. She accelerated but the Beast was still closing. “AGH! Take the wheel,” she told her co-pilot as she flipped herself out onto the roof of her car. The Beast pulled up behind her and Narco flipped the switches in the console back transforming the Beast back to its normal form. Narco flipped out onto the roof with Chop Shop as Slick took the wheel. Narco leaped off the Beast onto the Burn Out spinning as he slashed at Ayako. She back flipped onto the hood taking aim with her grenade launcher and fired. Narco dropped back into his own shadow dodging the shot. He then flew up in front of Ayako slashing across her chin as he flew up sending her flying back in front of the car. Before she could hit the road she whipped out he hair. She latched onto the front bumped swinging herself around Narco and up onto the roof behind Narco. She quickly swung her bat on Narco’s hand and knocked Chop Shop from his hand causing it to fall to the road as they sped away from it.  
                As the others struggled to catch up they saw something in the road. Everyone swerved to avoid it, but Maroon recognized the shape. She swung out and then cut across the road leaning low to the road and grabbed the object. It was scratched up from skidding along the road but it was Narco’s weapon. “Oh no,” she said. Maroon straightened bike and formed two thruster points on the back of her bike and she took off ahead of the others trying to catch up to her brother.  
                Narco didn’t have time to panic about his lost weapon. He acted fast, rolling onto the hood of Ayako’s car pulling out his chain coiling it in each hand while leaving a length of a little less than two feet between. Ayako started swinging like a mad woman at Narco. All he could do was block he swings, catching them on the taught section of chain and guiding them off to the sides. Eventually he decided to go on the offensive. This time when Ayako swung he let the chain give. He slid to the side as he coiled the chain around the bat. He slid his way around her and then pull hard making her bat fly up into her face. He pulled the chain back releasing the coil in his right hand and let the hook end hang. He spun the hook fast before letting it fly at Ayako. The hook was relatively large and heavy so it hit with great force. It struck her in the stomach causing her to take a step back. In that second Narco bulled the chain back before whipping it back out at her knee causing her to drop to one knee. He rushed forward and coiled the chain around her arms pulling it tight as he put his knee in the small of her back for leverage. “It’s over Ayako. Just end this,” Narco said. “Never,” she said. She still had her bat in her hand. Without thinking she converted it to its grenade launcher form and awkwardly aimed at Narco’s feet. She fired and Narco was sent flying over her landing on the Beast’s hood. She shirked the chains from her arms taking her bat and jumped onto the Beast swinging down on Narco hopping to end the fight. Narco was two fast though. Before she could make contact Narco pulled out two large wrenches from his back under his vest and crossed them in front of him catching the back. He pushed her back and jumped to his feet swinging one of the wrenches like a club but she blocked it. Ayako started swinging at him and he struggled to block each swing. “Slick I need the toolbox!” Narco yelled to his driver. Slick looked to the red toolbox sitting behind the passenger side seat. He reached over and grabbed the box by the handle. “Narco heads up!” he called as he held to box out the window. Narco caught another of Ayako’s swings and used it to force her back onto the roof of her own car. Slick tossed the toolbox out the sun roof and Narco dove for it. Ayako quickly converted her bat to its grenade launcher form and fired at Narco just as he was about to touch the toolbox. The grenade hit the roof of the Beast and exploded into a fire ball of fire dust.  
                Ayako thought she had finished him off, but then she heard the sound of two simultaneous shotgun blasts as Narco flew out the front of the fireball delivering a powerful right cross with the sound of a shotgun blast. Ayako flew back over the front of her car. She acted quick and slammed the flails on the end of her hair tentacles on the road and used them to throw herself back onto the hood of her car. There she saw what had hit her. Narco was standing there on the roof of her car with a pair of heavy gauntlets on similar to Yang’s but they had plating on over the knuckles with a set of what looked like chainsaw chains over them, double shotgun barrels on the gauntlets, and where made of weathered gunmetal with plenty of were and scratches for use in combat, with brown leather straps holding them on and black detail. At the sight of these weapons all Slick could say was their name, “Street Rippers.” Narco cracked his knuckles and pulled his goggles over his eyes. “I really didn’t want to do this,” he disappointedly. He closed his fist tightly like they were about to be used to punch and the chains on his knuckles began to spin around his knuckles. “Die!” Ayako yelled as she let her hair tentacles loose flying straight at him. Narco ducked under most of the tentacles while bringing up his arms in a boxer’s block to deflect the remaining ones. He then lunged forward delivering a quick succession of jabs followed by a right hook with a shotgun blast before jumping back. Ayako swung her bat at him but Narco blocked it and gave her a left cross. Narco leaped up leap frogging over Ayako as he fired his shotguns down on top of her. He landed behind her before sweeping his leg across her legs knocking her to her back. He jumped on top of her about to deliver a finishing punch when two of her hair tentacles knocked him off of her. He popped to his feet just as she swung another tentacle at her. Narco clicked his gauntlets causing them to change. On the top of the wrists a pair of hydraulic hybrid cutting and spreading jaws extended. He caught the tentacle in one of the jaws and closed the jaw cutting it off. He spun around and slashed the other open jaw across her before delivering another punch to her.  
                “Narco!” Slick called out pointing down the road. Narco looked to see the finish line coming up. “Move over!” Narco called back to him. Narco delivered a double punch to Ayako firing all four of his shotgun barrels blowing her back onto her own car. Narco quickly swung himself back into the driver seat of the Beast. He flipped all the transformation switches and fired the High-V mode’s jet thrusters and rocketed ahead of Ayako. “NO!” she yelled. She flipped into her driver’s seat and tore open her center console exposing her nitro dust system. “Boss what are you doing? We already used up the nitro,” he copilot said. Ayako reached into her back seat with her hair and pulled up dust tank of pure fire dust. She tore the empty nitro dust tank from its socket. “Boss you can’t!” the co-pilot said. “It will make us go faster!” she said. “It will blow us up!” he said back. Ayako was to angry to listen to him and she just used her hair to throw him out the door. She slammed the fire dust into the socket and her car’s exhaust pipes blew out flames as she took off down the track after Narco and Slick.  
                Back at the finish line all the street racers were waiting with anticipation to see who would win. “Mustang, you see anything?!” Links called up to Mustang. The cowboy was hanging off a ladder on the side of the wall with a pair of binoculars looking down the road they would be coming from. “What in the name of horse hockey?!” Mustang said as he looked to see a hug dust trail and a strange looking car in front of it. “Clear the road!” he yelled warning everyone and everyone scattered to get out of the way. Just as the Beast reached the factory complex, Narco pulled a brake lever next to her seat. Airbrake flaps opened towards the rear of the car and all the downforce fins reangled to maximize downforce at the cost of speed. Narco slammed his foot on the brake pedal causing the brakes to completely lock as his tires skidded across the road. As they slowed down Narco slammed his wheel to the side drifting to a stop across the finish line. By the time the car came to a stop the heat coming off the jet engines and hood, and the rubber of the tiers could be seen dripping off the wheels melted from the friction heat. Narco flipped back his conversion switches turning the car back to normal and he and Slick stepped out of the car.  
                Everyone cheered for the victors. “Wrench that was amazing,” Links said shaking his hand. “Boy you must have been pulling three hundred there at the end!” Mustang said. “You my man are a racing god!” Rigtail said. I may just need to change my rule about dating the competition,” Tigre purred flirtatiously.  
                Just then they all heard a roaring sound coming down the track. They looked to see Ayako’s car barreling down the track. The engine seemed to be on fire under the hood and flames roared from her supercharger as she rocketed into the factory. They heard the screech of her brakes but her car spun out and flew off the ground rolling along the ground before slamming into a concrete column. All Narco could see was a flashback to his own car all those years ago. “AYAKO!” he yelled as he ran to the wreck. He could see dust fuel leaking from her car’s tank and slowly making its way toward her flaming engine. Narco acted fast unpacking his Street Rippers and extended the hydraulic jaws. He worked fast jamming the closed jaws into a crack and opened them forcing the gap wider before cutting with the inside of the jaws. Narco finally reached Ayako and pulled her from the wreck. He leaped away from the car with her turning his own body to the car as it exploded protecting the unconscious Ayako. Slick ran up asking, “Is she all right?” Narco laid her down and checked her vitals. As he did she began to stir. She looked up to see her two old friends knelt over her. “Slick? Narco? What’s it been eight years?” she asked greeting her friends not an once of anger in her, as if the past few day’s had never happened. She sat up looking around, “Wait where am I? This isn’t Vacuo,” she said puzzled. “What are you talking about?” Slick asked. “Last thing I remember I was in Vacuo chasing a bounty,” she said. Suddenly she grabbed her head in pain, “Ow, no, no you witch get out of my head!” she screamed as she staggered to her feet. She struggled with her pain before she froze looking at Narco and Slick. A hypnotic swirl formed in her eyes and her ferocious anger returned.  
                “I’LL KILL YOU!” she yelled and charged at them swinging her bat. Slick drew one of his pistols converting it to its crowbar form deflecting her attack. Narco dove off to the side unpacking his gauntlets and threw a punch firing a shotgun blast at her. She dove out of the way and fired a grenade at him. Narco acted fast extending the jaws from his gauntlets. He caught the flying grenade in the jaws and used its inertia to spin himself and fling the shell back at her. The grenade hit the ground in front of her and the blast dazed her for a second. Slick connected his two pistols together at the handles. The barrels flipped straight and one extended its crowbar while the other extended the chain which went rigid forming a staff. He reached out with it and hooked the crowbar hook onto her bat and pulled it from her hand. He then pushed off sliding along the ground low as he swung his staff across her feet knocking her off her feet. Then while she was still airborne he spun around thrusting the curved hook end into her back firing a revolver shot knocking her towards Narco who gave her a high-powered punch in the stomach and sent her flying into a wall causing it to collapse. She leaned against the ruble steadying herself before she screamed in anger letting her remaining ponytails loose whipping at Narco and Slick in a frenzy. Narco and Slick struggled to block all her strikes as Slick said, “We got to cut off the hair. You got to use your Street Rippers.” I can’t I got to cut them closer to the base, and they’re to strong to cut more than one at a time,” Narco said. “Narky!” Narco heard in the distance. He turned to see Maroon barreling down the road towards them with thruster points on the back of her bike, waving Chop Shop. “Get the tails together!” Narco said before he fired two shotgun blast forward propelling him back a bit before he used another to send him to the side out of side. Slick converted his staff back to their revolver forms. Slick ran off to the side firing at her drawing her attention. Not thinking straight in her anger Ayako sent all her ponytail thrusting at him at a single point. Slick jumped over the ponytails letting his chain out coiling it around all the hair and pulling it taught. He then dragged the hair toward the ground converting his other gun to its crowbar for and stabbed it into the ground between two overlapping chain links sticking her to the ground.  
                Narco flew out of a shadow next to Ayako and gave her a swift uppercut. “Maroon throw it!” Narco yelled. Maroon flipped her grip on the chainsaw sword so she was holding it like a javelin. She formed a thruster point on the pommel giving it maximum thrust and threw it to her brother sending the weapon flying at over a hundred miles an hour. Narco dropped into his own shadow before coming out of Ayako’s behind her jamming his open hydraulic jaw around the base of the ponytails closing them to get a grip. He flipped over her head using the ponytails as a pivot and grabbed Chop Shop out of the air as it flew by and in one quick movement fired up the chainsaw an chopped off all of Ayako’s ponytails fallowed by a knee in the small of her back sending her flying forward with her aura shattered.  
She hit the ground skidding on her stomach till she came to a stop. Narco ran up to her. “Ayako are you alright?!” She struggled to her knees struggling to breath. Narco thought she was done but then he noticed her he had cut off her left sleeve exposing her arm on it he saw a strange bracer. “Ayako what is that…” Narco didn’t get a chance to finish. Ayako spun around whipping the bracer are out and a yoyo of some sort with extended razor blades flew at him. Narco had no time to react.  
Suddenly her heard a thunder crack and saw Matt in front of him deflecting the yoyo with Storm Reaper. Matt bolted forward right up to Ayako. She flicked her wrist extending an eighteen-inch blade and tried to stab him but he unpacked one of his claw gauntlets and caught the blade. He forced her up against a wall and let loose four of his talons, opening their grasping mouths and ramming them into the wall around her wrist and ankles. “It’s over! Get out of her!” Matt yelled at her. “I know you’re in there! Your cover is blown!” Narco was confused. Ayako spit on Matt’s boot. “So be it,” he said. Just as all the team RWBY, Arlind, the other Grizzles pulled up and Matt’s car on auto pilot pulled up, Matt formed to electrical glyphs on his hands putting them on either side of her head. “MATT NO!” Narco yelled thinking he was going to kill her. Matt released a surge of electrical energy into Ayako’s head and took a step back. Ayako’s head shook violently before she struggled to say, “Get… Out… Of… My… Head… You… WITCH!!!” suddenly a purple aura shaped like a person phased out of Ayako landing on its knees. Matt recalled his Talons and caught Ayako in a fireman’s carry who had passed out. He carried her over to Narco and Slick and set her down. “Matt what’s going on?!” Narco demanded to know. Suddenly the gauntlet on Ayako’s arm started clicking. They looked to the tool to see the little mechanical arms that held it on release itself from her arm and flip itself over forming something akin to a mechanical bug. Before they could do anything it scurried over to the aura person that had fallen out of Ayako. The aura began to materialize becoming a young woman and the gauntlet jumped onto her left forearm locking onto it.  
                The young woman staggered to her feet facing them. She had bleach blonde hair with bangs covering her left eye and the rest tied back in a curly ponytail. She wore a black blouse, a short white tie, a white formal jacket, a black pleated skirt, black stockings, white heals, and had a the emblem of a black hypnotic spiral on her back.  
Matt took a defensive position drawing his Seraph SMGs. “Matt do you know this person?” Slick asked. “Only by reputation. Her name is Gwynn Laban. She’s a political and corporate spy, saboteur, and assassin. He semblance allows her to take control of other people’s bodies that she uses to infiltrate places and get close to targets. She’s been controlling Ayako the whole time,” Matt said converting his SMGs to their sword forms and taking a defensive posture. “My brother Sterling has been chasing her for years and has never gotten close. He’s going to have a cow when he finds out I took her down.” “No,” he heard behind him. Matt looked over his shoulder to see Ayako getting to her feet, her aura already regenerating. “I remember now. She took over my body nearly a year ago and has been using me for her own purposes,” she said as she dusted herself off. “She’s mine.” Matt understood as he holstered his weapons and stepped back as Ayako stepped forward. “Hey Ayako, I think you’ll need this,” Narco said as he threw her bat to her that he pulled from the wreck as he pulled her out. She slung the Bat over her shoulder and behind her neck resting her arms over.  
                Hah you intend to fight me without your semblance? I learned all about you while I was controlling you I could see all your memories. I know exactly how you fight and your weaknesses,” Gwynn said. She whipped her gauntlet out to the side extending the blade. “For example, I know it takes an hour for your hair to regenerate to the point you can use it as a weapon again, and your friend Narco lopped them all off,” Gwynn said. Suddenly one of Ayako’s withering chopped ponytails glowed with her aura and regained its color. She then whipped it out smacking the ground in front of Gwynn. Gwynn took a step back confused and shocked. “How?!” “I’m not the dumb punk rock motor head you thought I am. When you were in my head I realized a few things pretty quickly. One, even if you had taken over my body, my mind was still free to think and you weren’t constantly reading every thought. Two, when you were going through my thoughts and memories you would usually latch onto whatever memory I was actively thinking of so you ignored some key information. For example,” Ayako’s aura flashed over her remaining withering ponytail stubs and they all regained their color. Ayako whipped them all forward trying to strike Gwynn who barely managed to dive out of the way. “Yes, my hair takes an hour to regenerate, naturally. But if I feed some of my aura into them, I can regenerate them instantly!” she yelled as she charged whipping her hair across in a wave striking Gwynn before she charged swinging her bat. Gwynn deflected the bat along her blade as she flipped over in and slashed at Ayako. However, one of Ayako’s ponytails came up and the blade bounced off it. Confused Gwynn jumped back a bit retracting her blade and exposed a silenced pistol and fired at Ayako. Ayako brought a group of her ponytails in front of her coiling them into shields that stopped the bullets cold. “How?!” Gwyn stammered. “I fed you memories of my ponytails being cup by blades, so you thought they could be cut pretty easy by a weapon. But those memories were from when I was young, none of them were from the two years before you took over my body. You didn’t know that you could reinforce them any stronger. Gwynn whipped out her yoyo at Ayako. She simply side stepped out of the way coiling the cable around her bat. She pulled hard and Gwynn came flying at her for her to as Ayako took a batter’s stance and swung like a pro ball player sending Gwynn flying into a wall. “And then off course there is the one secret I hid from you the most. Of course, I still can’t believe you never found these,” Ayako said as she pulled out the cord tying her ponytails together at their bases exposing a group of ring like hair clips holding the individual ponytails together. Gwynn couldn’t see them too well but on closer inspection Matt could see a small set of dust crystals on each clip. “I never showed you how to use dust with them,” Ayako said. She focused her aura on the clips and activated the dust on the clips and suddenly each ponytail was engulfed in either fire our lightning. Ayako charged at Gwynn swinging her ponytails wildly at Gwynn. Gwynn dodged and blocked as best she could when Ayako brought several of her flaming ponytails together in the form of a hammer and swung it across with more force than any one ponytail. Gwynn tried to block it but it had too much force and sent her flying. Gwynn staggered to her feet and tried to aim her gauntlet’s gun at Ayako only to find it was damaged by the last attack.  
                Panicking Gwynn used her trump card. She pulled out her scroll and hit a button. Everyone froze as they heard several explosions going off one after another getting louder and louder until one went off in the middle of the factory blowing a hole in the ground. Suddenly Grimm began flood out of the hole. Gwynn had blown a passage way from outside territory on the far side of Mt. Slate for the Grimm to enter the city through. People began to panic running for their cars to flee. In the confusion, Ayako lost track of Gwynn and she vanished.  
                Suddenly a Creep leaped at Ayako. She was too angry to notice, until Narco flew out of her shadow and punched the Creep in the face blowing it apart with a blast for one of his Street Rippers. “Ayako focus,” narco called to her snapping her out of her daze. Slick slid up with his guns out and Arlind ran up with his rifle in hand followed by the remaining members of team MRLN, team RWBY, and the rest of the Grizzles. “The Grimm are flooding in!” Weiss said. “We need to seal that hole,” Ruby said. “For once I with Goodwitch was here,” Yang said. “No time to gripe! Containment is the priority. We need to bottleneck that hole,” Matt said. “If you’re a huntsman or huntress your front line. Students take the midline and catch what we miss. Grizzle family take the rear guard and cover the people fleeing,” Matt said. Arlind tossed his keys to Cole. “You and the Mama Grizzle take my ride,” he said. Cole nodded. “But what about the hole?” Maroon asked. “I’ll take care of that. Now go!” Matt said and they scattered.  
Matt bolted away to the Blind while the others took to battle. The rest of team MRLN Ayako, Slick, and Arlind charged into the hoard of Grimm taking out every monster they could. Any Grimm they couldn’t get to was taken care of by team RWBY. On the back line the Grizzle parents had climbed into Arlind’s Rhino. Cole took the wheel and Glaucia took the turret using it the spray the hoard of Grimm with bullets and heavy shells. The twins and Cola activated the assault walker mode in the Grizzly. The machine transformed and stood up on triple jointed. The main torso hunched over and it had arms holding both the machine guns and auto cannons while the turret and heavy cannons moved onto the back. Using this form they sprayed the hoard of Grimm with bullets and cannon shots thinning them out.  
                Narco, Arlind, Slick, and Ayako were in perfect sync. They appeared to know each other’s moves before they made them. Slick would slide forward on zero friction whipping out his chain coiling it around a group of Grimm pulling them together as Ayako and Arlind fired grenades into the group. Narco the light of the blast would cause a shadow Narco would jump out of behind a Grimm slashing it in two as before converting Chop Shop to shotgun mode and blasting another pair of Grimm causing them to real back as Ayako lanced her flaming hair tentacles through them. From there she changed her changed her hair to lightning dust forming the hair into a group blades and spun on her toes whipping them out in a razor wheel slashing through Grimm. As she came to a stop she saw Arlind backed against a wall firing at the a group of Grimm as they closed in. Ayako converted her bat to its grenade launcher form taking aim to get them off him when the Grimm were all cleaved in two around the middle. As they disintegrated she saw Arlind holding his rifle now converted into a large sword. He came back around and slashed another Grimm before running another through pulling the trigger to fire the gun causing the sword to fly out of the Grimm and his hands and ram the pommel into the head of another before flipping through the air and landing its handle in Arlind’s hand. Ayako slung her grenade launcher over her shoulder. “He’s gotten good,” she said to herself before pulling the trigger with the launcher still on her shoulder. The shell blew away another Grimm and the recoil swung the weapon back over her shoulder converting back to a bat and wacked another Grimm coming at her from the other side.  
Slick hooked his chain around the neck of a large Beowulf using it to swing himself up onto its shoulders. He put the barrel of his revolver to the creature’s head and fired point blank killing it. As he landed he noticed a slight rumble in the ground. “What’s that?!” he asked before dodging the attack of another Grimm. They looked to the hole as a huge Beringal Grimm climbed out. It was huge, easily twice the size of a normal one. “Dust! Move!” Narco yelled. The Beringal charged at them and every one jumped out of the way. Lulu flipped her axe down aiming its rocket launcher into the ground as she put her foot on the blade and fired sending her up onto the third floor of the factory. She popped out several dust crystals from her bandoleer charging them with her aura and threw them at ground in front of the ape like Grimm. The crystals transformed into large golems made of stone that shoulder tackled into the ape trying to hold it but the monster smashed them with ease. Ringo threw her boomerang so it passed in front of the Berignal dropping seeds before returning to her. She used her semblance and the seeds grew into huge vines that latched onto the beast and held it as best they could. With the creature held down all the huntsmen and huntresses took aim and fired simultaneously on the Beringal, but as the dust cleared they found it still moving as it snapped Ringo’s vines. “How do we stop this thing?!” Ruby asked in a panic. “Leave it to us!” the three youngest Grizzle sisters called out. Everyone looked to see the Grizzly in its walker form charging towards the monster.  
                As the machine charged Cola flipped a set of switches and the machine transformed again. The hunched over body rearticulated itself upright as the legs extended and the arms converted to make the machine appear more human in proportions. The turret shifted up and transformed becoming a bear like head with the barrel in the mouth and a pair of large mechanized hands unpacked on the end of the arms with the auto cannons in the arms and the machine guns having moved into the head. The two heavy cannons were now on the back with the barrels collapsed in size and pointing down. Inside the three cockpits were now one over another with Cola at the bottom watching the systems, Kali in the middle controlling movements, and Ceara in the head controlling the weapons. “Alright let’s maul this thing!” Kali said. Her cockit began to change as her seat rearticulated so she was upright threading her legs into to sockets and she fed her arms into sockets on each side. She fitted her fingers onto finger controls as a headset came down on her head giving her a control prospective as if the Grizzly’s head was her own. The sockets her limbs were in sensed how her muscles would tense for movement and made the machine move as she was trying to. The Grizzly took and fighting stance as Kali tested the movement of the fingers before closing them into fists. The Beringal paused for a second sizing up the monstrous machine in front of it that rivaled it in size.  
                The Grizzly moved first. It charge at the ape throwing a punch at it clear across the face. Angered by the hit the Beringal punched back but Kali slipped to the side and punched the ape in the face. Kali jumped back aiming the arms towards the monster and Ceara fired the auto cannons forcing the creature to real back. Kali charged back at the creature delivering quick burst of jabs to its stomach followed by an uppercut. Kali then went for a right straight when the Beringal caught the fist. Kali tried to punch with the other fist but the Beringal caught that one too. “Ceara freeze breath!” Kali said. Before the Ape Grimm could tear the arms off Ceara opened the move on the head exposing the barrel of the turret’s dust gun and fired blasting the creature with an ice dust pulse encasing it in ice. Kali pulls the Grizzly’s hands free before punching it shattering the ice and sending it flying back. Kali ran towards the creature as Ceara fired the machine guns. The Beringal held its arms up blocking the bulk of the bullets. Kali was just about punch the ape Grimm again when the creature grabbed a broken piece of metal bar and swung it striking the mech causing several armored plates to fall off but did not regenerate. “In Cola’s cockpit red lights flashed and alarms went off. “Girls, it hit our one of the armor generators!” Cola said. Kali moved the Grizzly’s left and to protect the gap in their armor as she punched at the gorilla with the right but the Beringal kept using its makeshift club using it to whack the mech about knocking armored plating off all over the unit. “Girls!” Narco cried out fearing for the girls. The Beringal swung the club again when Kali caught it. The Beringal changed its grip so it was holding the bar on each end putting its weight on it. Kali repositioned the hands on either side of the bar as the mech and the Grimm tried to overpower each other. However, the Beringal was slowly inching further over them. Kali had started to scream in rage as she forced the Grizzly to use every ounce of power. Cola sat in her seat holding her knees to her chest. Al around her red lights flashed and alarms went off warning that the servos were overtaxed and would give out soon. “No, no, no, it can’t end here. There’s still so much to do, there’s still so much to build,” she said to herself as she rocked herself. “No not here, not now, WE NEED TO WIN!”  
                Cola flipped a switch and the lights in Kali’s cockpit went dark and her controls disconnected. “What the Dust?!” she said. When the girls first tried building the Grizzly their parents insisted Cola have the ability to hijack control from Kali as she could be to impulsive and worried she could go too far, whereas Cola was usually the more calm one. Cola took her own set of controls and jammed the hand controls forward completely maxing out force from the arms. Cola began to scream in fury at the Grimm as something no one expected to happen occurred. A golden aura surged over her body for the first time in her short life before expanding over the entire mech. As Narco watched he said, “What the Dust?” “Ceara what’s going on?” he asked into his scroll. “Its Cola, she hijacked the controls from Kali and now she’s all glowy,” Ceara said. As Cola’s aura washed over the Grizzly the its servos seemed to grow stronger and stronger. Cola leaned further forward and the Grizzly began to overpower the Beringal. She forced the metal bar above the ape and fired the a fire dust blast from the dust cannon in the mouth that melted the middle of the bar turning it to slag. Cola overpowered the ape and slapped the two remaining sections into the monster’s head dazing it. Kali let go before she began to franticly punch the beast. She gave the Beringal a double punch sending it reeling back as she swung the heavy dust cannons under the arms and fired. The blast cut through the Grimm like a drill leaving two large hole through its chest as it fell to it knees as it began to disintegrate. However, in her hysteria Cola charged at the defeated beast and continued to punch it as is faded away and continued even once it was gone.  
“Narky, Cola’s lost it!” Kali told her brother. Narco acted fast. He ran up the Grizzly and jumped up on the machine. He grabbed hold of the latch on the hatch to Cola’s cockpit and pried it open. Inside her found he found Cola slugging away at nothing yelling, “NO, NO, NO!” “COLA!” he yelled at her. Cola froze with a punch already reeled back her next punch. She looked up to Narco with tears in her eyes and asked, “Did I get it?” As she calmed down her aura washed over her again before the glow on the mech faded and she passed out. Suddenly the parts of the arms began to fracture and the arms of the Grizzly flew apart. Narco was too busy to question the state of the Grizzly as he pulled his unconscious little sister from the machine. “Narco give me back control,” Kali said. Narco flipped the switches giving Kali back control and jumped of the machine with Cola.  
As he landed he looked up to see the Blind hovering over him. “Narco I need you up here,” Matt said over the scroll. Narco jumped into a shadow with Cola and came out of a shadow in the Blind’s garage. Matt was in the middle of loading an ammo belt with custom launcher grenades. He turned to look at Narco to see him and the unconscious Cola. “Oh Dust what happened?” Matt asked. “I don’t fully know,” Narco said. “Dust. Ringo get up here on the double. We need you to look after Cola,” Matt said. Ringo put her boomerang on her back and scaled the side of a building. Upon reaching the roof she dropped a seed growing it into an angled tree she ran up and into the front hatch of the Blind.  
                “Ringo take Cola and wake up Becky,” Matt said. Ringo took Cola from Narco and took her into the Blind’s medical bay. “She’ll be fine Nark, we need to focus,” Matt said pulling a large backpack over. “Are the Grizzly’s main cannons still functional?” Matt asked. “Yeah but the arms are destroyed,” Narco said. “Good I need you to change out the main dust crystals for these lava dust crystals,” Matt said. “Matt what’s your plan?” Narco asked. “Just do it fast,” Matt said as he fed the grenade belt into the grenade launcher on his bike’s grenade launcher and fixed it in a vertical position. He then threw his leg over the seat and kicked the starter. Matt did a donut leaving a black ring on the floor of the garage and took off out the front activating the flight mode on Storm Front to quickly but safely descend to the ground. He gunned the accelerator and took off jumping into the hole. “Is her insane?!” Arlind asked. “No he’s Matt Vert,” Lulu said as she sprayed another group of Grimm with Skull Breaker’s machine gun.  
Matt charged down the tunnel firing the bikes submachine guns cutting up Grimm in front of him. As he continued through the tunnel the grenade launcher fired a grenade into the ceiling. However, they didn’t explode instead sticking into the ceiling and arming remote detonators. Matt ran down the tunnel for about five miles till he was well outside of the city limits before turning back.  
                Back at the factory Narco jumped out of a shadow next to the Grizzly. “Ceara eject the main dust crystals from the heavy cannons,” Narco said. “Ceara flipped a few switches and the charging chambers opened and two large dust crystals in cage like structures. Narco went to work prying open the casings and pulling out the football sized crystals from the settings and replacing them with the new ones. “Mind if I take these?’ Ayako asked. Narco nodded as he worked. Ayako picked up the crystals and threw them up in the air. “Arlind go long!” she called out as she took a batter’s stance and swung hitting the crystals and sending them flying towards a group of Grimm. Arlind spun around taking aim and fired hitting the crystals perfectly causing them to shatter and exploded vaporizing the Grimm. “Ayako help me with these,” Narco said as he picked up one of the crystal casings. He and Ayako took the casings and pushed them into the cannons and closed the breaches letting the cannons heat up.  
                “Narco are the cannons ready?” Matt asked over the scrolls. “They’re warming up,” Narco said. “Aim the cannons at the hole at a ten degree down angle,” Matt said. “girls aim for the hole ten degrees down angle,” Narco said. Kali faced what was left of the Grizzly at the hole converting it to its assault walker mode as Ceara aimed the cannons at the hole unfolding the full barrels. “Matt when do we fire?” Ceara asked. “On my mark,” Matt said. “Five, four, three, two, one, FIRE!” Ceara pulled the trigger and Matt flew out of the hole holding out a detonator pressing the button just as the blasts flew into the hole. Matt landed in a drift skidding to a stop. The dust charges in the tunnel went of exploding into several tons of hot lava filling the hole before the blast from the cannon hit them. Matt had had the cannons’ dust crystals changed for high output ice dust crystals and the blasts caused the lava to harden within seconds all the way through. “Alright lets clean up people,” Matt said as he stepped off his bike drawing Storm Reaper and converting it to its scythe form as he bolted towards a group of Grimm.  
                As the shattered moon hovered over the factory, Lulu put her boot on the head of a disabled Beowolf and put a round from Arms Call in the beast’s head finishing it off. “That’s the last one,” Lulu said looking over the area not seeing a single living Grimm in sight. “Well I’d say this is contained,” Matt said as he converted his scythe back to its sword form and returned it to his back. Man I haven’t had this much forever,” Ayako said walking up as she started tying her ponytails back into their group on the back of her head. “Now that was just like old times. Win a race, get in a fight, kick fender for the rest of the night,” Arlind said. “Yeah all we need now is a stack of pancakes at the dinner and a lecture from Narco’s folks,” Slick said. “Yeah that and… a good… nap…” Ayako slurred as she passed out. “Ayako!” Slick said as he rushed to catch her.  
A few minutes later Ayako was laying on a bed in the medical bay with a scanner going over her. The Blind’s medical bay was a clean streamlined room with white walls, stainless steel fixtures, several patient beds, a desk for the doctor, and two attached rooms, a lab for tests and an operating room. In the room Ayako and young Cola were lying out on medical beds. Ringo was operating the equipment while a holographic projection of Becky was observing and watching the scan results as they came in. Matt, Slick, Arlind, Narco, and the rest of the Grizzle family where all packed into the relatively small medical bay awaiting the results.  
                Just then Ayako began to stir on the bed. She started to try to sit up when Ringo put her hand on her shoulder lightly holding her down. “Easy Ayako, just rest,” she said. “So what’s the verdict?” Matt asked. Becky shook her head, “I don’t really know what to think. The closest thing I can compare it too would be Elica Vunderkind.” “Who is that?” Slick asked. “She was a student of ours at Beacon. She has dissociative Aura Syndrome so she has two auras, two personalities, and two forms,” Matt said as he leaned against the wall. “Basically only one of the two auras and personalities can control the body at once. So when one is controlling the body the other is in a suppressed state within her. The scans of Ayako’s aura here appear similar to scans I’ve taken of Elica and her counterpart Regina during and shortly after them trading control. From what I can tell her aura is still trying to acclimate to being in control again. I guess the strain of the battle and constant use of her semblance was more than her aura was ready for. Adrenaline was probably what kept her going until the danger was gone and she succumbed to the strain,” Becky said.  
                “I’ll be fine guys,” Ayako said slowly sitting up holding her knee to her chest resting her chin on them. “For now all can do is proscribe rest as a doctor typically can’t go wrong with that, and over the next month maybe try slowly acclimating you aura. Strain it just a little bit more every few days work with you semblance a little more each day to train you aura back to full strength,” Becky said.  
                “What about Cola?” she asked looking at the eight year old lying on the bed next to her. “From what I can tell she’s simply overtaxed her aura. From what you’ve told me it appears her aura unlocked for the first time and her semblance manifested. Normally one’s aura and semblance start at a lower ability and then it builds strength like training muscles. In her emotional state she forced her aura to force her aura to accommodate more than it should have. She think of it like she tried pumping to much fluid into a hose at once. It would appear her semblance allows her to augment the physical abilities of machinery and materials while preventing them from succumbing to the strain they weren’t designed to withstand. Normally a semblance like this starts far weaker. She probably would have only been able to augment something a by, say five present for a few seconds. She managed to super charge the Grizzly several times its original power and held it for a few minutes. She overloaded her aura doing so and her aura tried to cut itself off but adrenaline must have kept her going,” Becky said. “Then why did the Grizzly’s arms break?” Ceara asked looking up from her little sister. “Every semblance has its strengths and weaknesses. Lulu requires dust crystals to function, Ringo needs seeds, Narco needs shadows, Matt’s begins to syphon power from his aura without external power from electricity, Ruby can maintain her speed for too long and can’t carry heavy objects, and Yang’s is proportional to how much damage she’s taken. I’m guessing Cola’s semblance doesn’t eliminate the strain on what she augments but instead withholds it until she is cuts off her power on it then its force to take the full brunt of it at once. The machine just couldn’t handle it and the arms broke apart,” Becky said.  
                "Is Cola going to wake up?” Kali asked worried about her sister. “Her aura just needs some time to cool over. She’s basically overheated like and engine. She should be fine by morning,” Becky said running her holographic hand over the girls head trying to brush a stray hair, forgetting she wasn’t really there. “I’d like her to stay here in the medical bay so I can monitor her for the rest of night. I’d also like Ayako to stay until morning too just to be safe,” Becky said. “No arguments here doc,” Ayako said as she lied back on her bed. “Cola’s gonna be alright right momma?” Kali asked. The two twins were right next to Cola both holding her hand. “I’m sure she’ll be fine girls. Now its late, let’s get you two to bed,” Glaucia said as she tried to put her hands on the girls’ shoulders to guide them out. “We want to stay with Cola!” they said flinching away. “Girls, you need sleep,” Glaucia said. “Then we’ll sleep here,” Kali said. “I don’t mind,” Becky said as she reached out of the holographic camera’s view back at Beacon and pulled an energy drink can into view. “We’re pretty much done here so they won’t be in the way,” she said as she cracked the can open. “Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on the monitors here at Beacon, so I’ll talk to you in the morning,” Becky said as the energy drink started to kick in and she started to vibrate. “See ya!” she said hyperactively and the projector cut out.  
“I’ll stay and keep an eye on them Ma,” Narco said as he sat on the remaining bed in the medical bay. “But there are no more beds dear,” Glaucia said. “I’ll take care of that,” Ringo said as she was putting some things away. She walked over to a wall pulling two seeds from a pouch on her belt. She reached up sticking the seeds to two spots on the wall before she backed away. She waved her aura covered hand in front of her and the seeds glowed. The seeds erupted into plants that locked onto the wall before long vines shot out onto the far wall. From there hammock like structures formed in the middle of the vines. “Perfect,” she said walking over to the hammocks followed by the twins. Ringo guided Kali to the Hammock and gave her a boost helping her into the hammock before doing the same with Ceara. “Wow this is so soft,” Ceara said. “The bottom leaf holds the wait then you have a thick bed of moss then another leave to seal it,” Ringo said as she dug out some extra pillows and blankets.  
                “They’ll be fine Ma, go get some rest. You and dad have been through a lot too,” Narco said. Cole put a hand on her shoulder signifying he agreed. “Call us if anything happens,” she said before everyone else filed out of the medical bay heading for bed. As they walked out they found team RWBY, Lulu, and the dogs sitting around waiting. “Is Cola going to be alright?” Ruby asked concerned. “She’ll be fine by morning. Come on hit the racks, we’re all exhausted,” Matt said as he yawned. As they walked to the Blinds sleeping quarters Mutton instead walked into the medical bay and curled up next to Cola’s bed. Everyone fell asleep pretty fast, after all it was one in the morning and they had been fighting all night.  
                The next morning Cola began to stir in her bed. She slowly opened her eyes to see Narco lightly snoring on the bed next to her. A little shakily she looked around to see Ayako on the bed on the other side of her, the twins in the plant hammocks and looked down to the see Mutton next to her. Mutton’s sensitive ears woke him at the sound of Cola’s movement. Looking up to see her conscious he popped to her feet before popping his front feet onto the bed started licking Cola’s face lovingly. “Hey Mutton stop, that tickles,” she said shakily but playfully trying to fight him off. Her giggles woke Narco who rolled over to see his sister awake. “Cola he said getting up and stepping over to her bed and guided her back to lying down. “Hmmm?” Ceara grumbled as she stirred in her hammock and saw her younger sister awake. “Cola!” she said as she jumped down from her hammock. “Cola?!” Kali said as she frantically tried to untangle herself from her hammock only to flip it and land flat on her face. She staggered to her feet as the two twins rushed to their sister’s side. “Well looks like the baby girl’s up,” Ayako said as she stood up. “Ayako you’re supposed to rest,” Narco said. “Rest my aura. Besides I’m more than healthy enough to wake the others,” she said walking out to find the others.  
                After the usual frantic hugs by her parents and kind words from everyone about Cola’s recovery, it was decided breakfast was in order. As everyone sat down in the Grizzle family kitchen Ayako asked, “So what happens now?” “What do you mean?” Narco asked. “Shouldn’t I be in a cell or something? I mean after all I did?” she asked. “All you did under the forced control of a known criminal. Ayako your name is clean. I’m more worried about Narco,” Matt said. “What are you talking about Matt?” Narco asked. “The hanger full of Bullheads you left in pieces when this all started. Ozpin is going to kill you,” Matt said. “Oh boy,” Narco said as he scratched the back of his neck guiltily. “Well if you’re leaving again we at least need to do it right this time,” Arlind said. “Yeah last time you left we never go to have your going away party,” Slick said. “Mama Grizzle start the smoker and call up the racing scene, we got to party!”  
                Word spread fast and that night the whole Deus Ex racing scene showed up at the Grizzle’s. The lot next to the shop turned into a hug car show full of music, people dancing, hanging out, and eating from the large buffet of Glaucia’s barbeque. Some of the racers even showed up early to help them clean up the Grizzles’ war torn shop after the dogs had repelled the Smash Punk attack. According to Links with Ayako no longer their leader the Smash Punk was quickly dying. Some had asked to join other crews, some dropped of the racing scene, and the few remaining ones either blew out of town or were trying to form a more legitimate crew. As the party raged on Narco, Slick, Arlind, and Ayako sat down with some drinks.  
                “Hey Ayako what exactly did you do after we all left?” Narco asked. Ayako was about to take a drink when she stopped. “Yeah when Slick and I got back to town we heard you won a small fortune in races and blew out of town,” Arlind added. “You blamed us for leaving you didn’t you?” Slick asked. “Slick blame you guys was the last thing I did. Narco I always knew you wanted to get out of Deus Ex and see Remnant. I had been preparing myself for you to leave for years. Slick you got arrested doing the wrong thing for the right reason even though there were probably some more legal options; you were trying to help your mother. Arlind your parents just wanted you to better morals and ideals that you wouldn’t get here in Deus Ex. What Gwynn said while she was in my head wasn’t true. I don’t blame you guys. Everyone needs to leave the nest someday,” she said. “You seem to have matured yourself,” Narco said as he took a drink. “Yeah well a huntsman academy will do that to you,” she said nonchalantly. Narco, Slick, and Arlind all did a spit take before saying in unison, “WHAT?!” “Yeah, after I left town I bounced around a bit before I ended up in Vacuo and well it’s Vacuo. You know how it is. Anyway by the time I got there I had burned through most of my Lien, some thugs tried to robbed me, I took down a couple of them but they call for help and a hoard of them showed up. I was on my last legs when a huntress showed up and scared them off. She told me I had too much potential to waste on the streets. I ended up enrolling in Shade Academy and ended up becoming a Huntress,” she said.  
"What exactly was it like having Gwynn controlling you?" Arlind asked. “Agony, she had been controlling me for nearly a year,” she said. “How could she overpower a person’s body for so long?” Arlind asked. “I don’t know how she did it. She would take over and hold control of me for up to a month at one time. It was the only thing worse than seeing someone hurt the people you care about is having someone make you hurt people you care about. At least you guys were able to stop me… I mean her,” She said. “Well not without sacrifice, sorry about your hair again,” Narco said. Ayako ran her hand over her now short ponytails, “It’s alright, I actually kind of like them shorter. If there’s anything I’m going to miss it’s the car. I built Burnout piece by piece. I loved that car.” “Wait you don’t know? Ayako were you always watching while Gwynn was in control?” Narco asked. “Maybe sixty to seventy five percent of the time, sometimes when I was yelling at her too much she would completely lock me in, why?” she asked. Narco stood up waving for them to follow. They followed him into the garage to find a covered car. Narco whipped off the cover to reveal I car Identical to Ayako’s car that was destroyed. “What the?” she asked. “It appears Gwynn had a copy of your car made with heavier armor. That was the car that was destroyed. This is the car you build,” Narco said. Ayako shed a tear as she rushed up hugging the car. “I took a little trip down to one of the Smash Punk bases and found it waiting,” Narco said. “I love this car,” she said. “Ah, like a mother reunited with her child. Nark can I barrow you for a minute?” Matt asked as he walked in.  
                Maroon was talking hanging out with a bunch of her friends talking and laughing when Narco popped out of her shadow grabbing her and pulled her down in with him leaving her friends dumbstruck. Narco came out of a shadow in the bridge of the Blind where Matt was waiting leaning against the wall next to the main screen. “Narco what the heck, I was talking with my friends,” she complained. “This is more important,” Matt said in a serious tone. He hit a button on the console next to him and the main screen lit up with a live video call to Ozpin who was sitting at his desk in his office at Beacon with his usual cup of coffee. “Good day Ms. Grizzle,” The professor said. “Narco who is this?” she asked her brother confused and a little bit scared. “This is the man that signs our paychecks,” Narco said. “This is Professor Ozpin the headmaster of Beacon Academy,” Matt added. “Is nice to meet you,” Maroon stammered out a little intimidated. “And you Ms. Grizzle,” Ozpin said. “Narco what’s happening here?” she asked. “We figured it was best if Ozpin told you,” Narco said. “Yes it’s vary rare to have a recommendation from three active huntsmen and four Beacon professors,” Ozpin said. “Recommendations?” Maroon asked confused. “Early admittance requires recommendations from one active professor or three active huntsmen to be considered,” Ozpin said. “Early admission, are you saying?” Maroon asked with her eye lighting up. Matt hit some keys on the console and videos of Maroon fighting over the past couple of days opened around Ozpin’s video call. “I sent Ozpin combat recordings from the past few days along with a full evaluation,” Matt said as he took out his scroll. Matt began to read, “Though I have only known young Maroon Grizzle for a few days, she has proven to be a perfect huntress candidate. She has demonstrated excellent skill in both combat operations and information gathering and interpretation despite her lack of formal training. She has demonstrated excellent character in her determination to protect her fellow man, as well as a dedication to her friends and family. Therefore all signers of this petition as well as myself, officially recommend Maroon Grizzle for early admittance to Beacon Academy.” Matt handed her the scroll so she could see the application signed by Matt, Ringo, Lulu, Narco, Slick, Arlind, Ayako, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. “You all recommended me to Beacon Academy,” she said. “We only filed recommendations and the application. Professor Ozpin makes the final decision,” Matt said. “Maroon Grizzle, why do you want to go to my school?” Ozpin asked. “I want to be a huntress,” she said.  
                “Why do you want to be a huntress?” Matt asked as he walked behind her out of her field of view. “I want to be like my brother, and get out of Deus Ex,” she said. “No you don’t. I went to Beacon because I was running from my failures. Why do you want to go to Beacon?” Narco asked walking behind her out of her field of vision. Maroon was starting to get a little disturbed. “Narco what’s with all the cloak and dagger?” she asked. “Answer the question,” Matt said passing behind her. “Look inside yourself think about why you really want to be a huntress,” Narco said passing behind her. “Narco I don’t understand,” she said. “Close your eyes, take a breath, and think,” Ozpin said as he put his hands on his desk interlocking his fingers in front of him. Maroon did as she was told. She closed her eyes and took a deep breathe. “Think back to when you were fighting off the thugs that attacked the store,” Narco said. “Think about when your semblance first activated,” Matt said. “What was going through your head at the time?” “I was thinking I couldn’t die there. There was still something I had to do,” she said. “What did you still have to do?’ Narco whispered in her ear. “What were you thinking when the Smash Punks attacked the shop?” Matt said. “What were you thinking when you put that shotgun to my head when we first met?” “I was thinking I needed to protect…” she trailed off. She opened her eyes to see Narco staring directly into her eyes. “Alright Narco enough with the cloak and dagger,” she said. “You used to be fun,” he said. Maroon grabbed Narco by his face. “Narco this could possibly be the most important conversation of my life, I am in no mood,” she said in a serious tone. “Yeah Matt better drop it before she really loses it,” Narco said. She let go of his face. “You were saying Ms. Grizzle, What did you need to protect,” Ozpin said getting things back on track. “I, I needed to protect my family, I needed to protect my sisters who couldn’t protect themselves. I wanted to protected those who couldn’t protect themselves,” She said. Ozpin nodded to himself. “And you truly want to go to Beacon?” he asked. “Yes sir,” she said. Ozpin turned to Matt and nodded before tapping a button on his desk and the screen went black as the call hung up.  
“What happened?” Maroon asked. Narco came up behind her putting his hand on her shoulder while Matt walked over to the monitor turning it off and leaned against the wall. They were both smiling. “What?” Maroon asked. “Start picking posters,” Matt said. “What do I need posters for?” she asked. “For your dorm room next semester,” Matt said. “Congratulations sis, you just got into Beacon,” Narco said. Maroon froze, she didn’t move a millimeter. “Maroon?” Narco asked. She didn’t respond. Narco stepped in front of her looking her in the eyes. She didn’t even blink. Narco raised his hand in front of her face and snapped his fingers. The second she did, Maroon squealed with glee and tackled her brother to the ground hugging him. “This is the greatest day of my life!” she squealed. “Save those words for graduation,” Matt said. “Come on Sis lets go tell everyone,” Narco said.  
                “Hey guys where have you been?” Ruby asked as Matt, Narco, and Maroon returned to the party. Along with her were Kali, Ceara, and Cola riding Mutton. “Ma, Pa, come over here,” Narco called to his parents. “What is it son?” Cole asked. Narco put his hand on Maroon’s shoulder. “We just got off a video call with the headmaster of Beacon, and…” Narco said before looking down to Maroon. “I’ve been accepted to go to Beacon next semester!” Maroon squealed. “Congratulations!” Ruby said hugging her. “We need to celebrate!” Kali said. “We’re already at a party,” Narco said. “We have another idea,” Kali said looking as she, Ceara, and Cola looked at each other with devious smiles before scurrying off. “Oh dear,” Narco said fearing what his sisters were thinking. “What’s going on?” Slick asked as he, Arlind, and Ayako joined them. “Maroon was just granted early admission to Beacon Academy. She’ll be starting next semester,” Matt said. “That’s great! Another Deus Ex bread huntress,” Ayako said.  
                Just then they heard a clanking and rattling. They looked to see the girls returning pushing a chart full of the Welder’s old instruments. “Oh no, no, no, no, no, NO!” Narco said trying to stop this in its tracks. “Are these our old instruments?” Ayako asked digging through the cart. “We were thinking you guys could play like you used to,” Ceara said. “How do you guys even know about that? We stopped before you two could even talk and Cola was even born,” Ayako asked. “We have old recordings from when you guys would play. The girls love them,” Glaucia said. “No, I mean come on we haven’t played in years,” Narco said. “You haven’t. I’ve kept my vocal cords in good condition, and I’d never forget how to tickle the ivories,” Ayako said as she pulled her old keyboard loose and started running her fingers through the motions over it. “I still take a couple of sticks to the hood once in a while,” Arlind said pulling his old drum sticks loose and started drumming at the air. “I still find my fingers going through the motions when I’m sitting around with nothing to do,” Slick said pulling his base out and ran his fingers through the motions. Narco realized he wasn’t winning this argument. Narco pulled out his electric guitar out of the cart. It was dark grey and silver with a gunslinger style body with a grey neck that had a wrench shaped head on the end of the neck, knobs made from small gears, and a strip of an old car tire running around the rim of the body. He slung the black strap with stainless steel studs over his shoulder and plucked a few cords. “Alright fine,” he surrendered.  
                They set up their instruments in the hanger of the Blind right by the front hatch which they would open. As they tuned their instrument Narco took his welding goggles off his head and held them with the lenses over his knuckles and the strap bunched in his palm as he looked into the lenses. Slick, Arlind, and Ayako got the idea and did the same with their goggles. They all looked into the lenses of their goggles. “Why do we turn that ignition? Why do hit that nitro? Why do we race until we just can’t race any further?” Narco asked. “For the adventures we find along the way,” he said. “For the honor of being the first over the finish line,” Arlind said. “For the challenge of becoming the best,” Slick said. “For the thrill of the ride as we max the engine,” Ayako said. Then all together they said, “And for the bonds it forges under the flames of our torches welding us together. Three… Two… One… WELDERS!” the called out as they knocked their goggles together and thrusted them towards the ceiling.  
Lulu stepped onto the roof of the Blind over the front hanger Hatch. She Drew her hand cannon Arms Call and fired it straight into the air getting everyone’s attention. “ladies and gentlemen, for one night only, the return of the Welders!” she called out as the front hanger hatch facing the party opened. Everyone looked to see Narco, Slick, Arlind, and Ayako set up with their instruments. Narco plucked a few cords getting a feel for his old guitar. He took a deep breathe. “Alright,” he said as he took off into their first song (Skyline by Amaranthe). The crowd loved it.  
                As the concert raged on Gwynn Laban was struggling to scurry her way through the woods on the outskirts of Deus Ex. As she jumped over a large root she was struck by a burst of submachinegun fire. She fell to the ground and looked up just as Matt bolted in front of her pointing the tip of Storm Reaper at her, not an inch from her face. He had snuck away from the party. “You think I’d let someone as dangerous as you get away?” he asked rhetorically. She tried to move but Matt quickly dropped down lower to her putting the blade right against her throat. “I know you semblance is supposed to have a limit of a few hours. How did you hold control of Ayako for months at a time?” he demanded. She didn’t say anything but her eyes gave it away, as they began to slide down towards her hand. Matt looked to her left hand to see a white glove on her hand under her bracer, and on the glove, was a red emblem. It wasn’t Gwynn’s emblem but Matt recognized it. Before she could react, Matt leaned over pulling the glove from her hand and getting his blade back on her throat. He took a better look at the emblem. It was red with an eye like shape surrounded by a circle with ornate detailing lines inter connecting them. There was no denying it, the mark of Salem. Matt’s face became somewhat regretful, as if he was sorry he had seen that emblem. “Oh Gwynn, I am so sorry,” he said as he put the glove in his pocket and stood up. “Sorry for what?” she asked scared. “Sorry you fell in with those people,” he said as he raised his sword. His face was cold and emotionless but his eyes said he didn’t want to have to do this.  
                Then just as he was about to end her two shadowy figures burst out of the dark wood. Matt reacted quickly spinning to deflect their attacks. One of them appeared to have a scorpion tail covered in metal and the other’s breathing sounded weird, as if it were coming through a mask. After a few seconds of fighting one of the figures let of plume of smoke out covering the area. Matt coughed a bit before spinning with his sword held out to disperse the smoke. He looked around to see his assailants gone as well as Gwynn. Matt groaned in annoyance when he noticed a mark on a tree where the scorpion tail had tried to sting him he saw what looked like acid eating away at it. He took a closer look. “No it couldn’t have been them,” he said to himself.  
                Matt slipped back into the party. The Welders were still playing, they were on their fourth song of the night (Mechanical Influence by Amaranthe). Matt did his best to slip through the party unnoticed but Yang caught him. “Hey Matt where have you been?” she asked. “Oh just checking into something. “I heard there was a good custom car part maker a few streets over. I was hoping they could do some custom wheel faces for me but they were closed. Must be around here somewhere. “Anyway I got to check in with Ozpin so he knows well be leaving in the morning,” Matt said as he left Yang.  
                Matt entered the bridge of the Blind and closed the blast shutters on the windows so no one could see in. He pressed a few buttons on the console and Ozpin can up on the main monitor. “What is it Matt?” the headmaster asked. Matt pulled Gwynn’s glove from his back pocket holding it up so Ozpin could see the emblem. “This is how Gwynn Laban was able to extend her semblance’s abilities,” he said. Ozpin saw the emblem on the glove and his eyes narrowed. “This is not good,” Ozpin said. “But what could she possibly want in Deus Ex? It’s a factory town not a political hotspot,” Matt asked. “I actually took a look into that,” Ozpin said as he tapped some keys on his desk and a side screen opened with information on it. “Most of what the Smash Punks did was street racing and vandalism, but there was one report that was odd. They robbed a transport truck, only one transport truck and never did it again,” Opzin said. “What was in the truck?” Matt asked.  
                Gwynn was practically thrown into the back of the limo by the two shadowy figures that saved her before they slammed the door. She took a second to calm herself when a man on the far side of the limo spoke. “I told you not to overstay your welcome,” the man said. “But I made so much money for you,” she said trying to defend her actions. “You went too far! You revealed yourself, and worse you revealed who you were working for!” the man said in a serious tone. He leaned out of the shadows to reveal his face. His skin was tanned, his eye yellow, and had a black mustache, Dr. Watts. “But I never told them anything,” she said. “The glove, you fool. It was marked with the emblem of my superior. Now the Beacon professor has it,” Watts said. “But I never told them my true purpose,” she said. Watts sighed. “Did you complete you mission?” he asked. “Yes,” she said as she pulled out her scroll handing it to him. Watts took the scroll and placed it against his own, transferring files from it to his own before tossing hers back to her. He looked through the files. “Atlas really shouldn’t have outsourced the coding for the Knight-200s. My superior will be pleased,” he said. “So, I did good?” Gwynn asked. Watts face was stone cold. “You will return with me. I have a new assignment for you,” Watts said as he sat back knocking on the divider for the driver to drive on. As the Limo drove down the road, it was followed by the two shadowy figures in an armored jeep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more information on Arlind Palimino go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Arlind-Palomino-669599957  
> For more information on Slick Oiler go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Slick-Oiler-669600727  
> For more information on Ayako Jett go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Ayako-Jett-669600890  
> For more information on Maroon Grizzle go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Maroon-Grizzle-669601084  
> For more information on the street racers of Deus Ex go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/The-Grizzle-Family-669601214  
> For more information on the Grizzle Family go to http://zummerz.deviantart.com/art/Dues-Ex-Street-Racers-669601422


	17. The Beast of Beacon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After coming into into tickets to one of the hottest clubs in Beacon, Teams RWBY and JNPR get caught up in the covert hunt for a horrid creature.

Chapter 16 The Beast of Beacon

 

                It was a beautiful Friday night in Vale as Team RWBY walked out of the movie theater in Vale. As Matt had nothing to do that night he tagged along. Narco and Lulu had gone out on a date and Matt’s own girlfriend Ringo had gone to a class on artistic hedge trimming. “Aw that was a good movie,” Ruby said as if she was on cloud nine. “Nothing like a good love story,” Weiss said. “I’m sure Blake liked it considering those ninja love books she reads,” Yang joked as she worked on finishing off her leftover popcorn. Blake’s face went red. “You guys know about those?” she asked. “As I said before, now that’s a katana,” Ruby said.

                Matt just groaned. He was walking a few feet behind them, his hands in his pockets and head hunched forward. He was not happy. “You could have told me we were going to see a chick flick.” “Would you have come if we did?” Yang asked. “No I would have called Razor, and been drunk under the table,” he said. “Are you sure you aren’t like Uncle Qrow?” Yang asked. “I appreciate a good drink. That doesn’t mean I’m the next drunken scythe of signal,” Matt said. “Why don’t you like chick flicks?” Weiss asked. “Oh let’s see, the fact they’re called ‘chick’ flicks which are aimed towards females and I am far from female, the lack of crude let alone descent humor, not a single explosion or fight… Need I continue?” the girls just laughed.

                Just as they were walking down the road towards Matt’s car they heard someone called out behind them, “Look out!” On instinct Matt bolted out of the way but the RWBY girls simply turned around to have a young woman on tricked out inline skates crashed into them. “Did anyone get the plate on that truck?” Ruby asked in a daze. “Oh my dust I am so sorry,” the girl who crashed into them said as she flipped to her feet and tried to help the other girls up.

                As they got to their feet the girls got a better look at her. She was a young woman of about twenty one with blonde hair tied in a short messy ponytail with one bang on the side of her face dyed blue and the other dyed pink. She wore a black short brim fedora with a blue and pink striped band and welding goggles on it, headphones with a silver and black band one blue phone and one pink phone, a silver sleeveless hoodie half unzipped with and exposed midriff, pink mid-rift tube top, white black and grey camo Capri cargo pants, pink high-top sneakers, a single strap backpack with a black strap across her chest and a silver dome shape with black speakers embedded in it, and a streamlined case hanging from her shoulder.

                “I am so sorry, I was in a hurry and I wasn’t looking, and…” “It’s alright,” Blake said stopping her. “Yeah we really should have seen you coming,” Ruby said. “It would appear you guys need another class on evasion and awareness in the field,” Matt said. “Oh your students, Beacon right?” she asked. “Yeah it was just an accident. No harm done,” Weiss said. “Still I feel guilty. Oh I know,” she said as she dug in her bag and pulled out a pile of passes. “I got some extra passes to this club and no one to give them to. Good music, good, atmosphere, perfect place for a group of young students,” she said. The girls looked at the passes as Ruby took the passes. “The Finale?” Blake asked. “I’ve heard of this club. I hear it’s been really popular lately. They’ve been sold out of passes every night for the past couple of weeks,” Yang said. “Oh we can’t accept these. You could scalp these for twice the value,” Weiss said. “Please I insist. The owner’s a friend. Huntresses and even student huntresses are pretty much celebrities, having a bunch of Beacon students hanging out in his club would be great for his business,” she said. “Trust me you’ll love it.” She looked at her watch. “Oh dust I’m going to be late. They have some really great DJ playing tomorrow. You defiantly don’t want to miss it,” she said before she spun on her left skate and took off down the road grinding down rails and doing tricks off benches. 

                They looked back at the passes. “Well as Scotch and Lonan say never look a gift horse in the mouth. How many passes are there?” Matt asked. Ruby counted them quickly before answering, “Fourteen.” “Well I’ll call four for MRLN, four for you girls, so what do we do with the remaining six?” Matt asked. “Team JNPR, Sun, and Neptune?” Blake suggested. “Yeah we haven’t spent a lot of time with them out of class recently,” Ruby said. “Alright tell team JNPR, Sun, and Neptune and meet at the hanger at seven. I’ll have Narco pull a bullhead for us,” Matt said.

                The next evening Narco set a bullhead down on a landing pad in Vale about a block or two from the Finale. As he shut down the engines teams RWBY, JNPR, and MRLN, Sun, and Neptune climbed out the side hatch. “So what kind of club is this?” Jaune asked. “It’s a dance club. I hear it’s one of the big up and coming clubs in Vale. They got some great DJ that apparently puts on this big spectacle during the performance.” Ringo said. “I didn’t know you were a nightclub expert,” Weiss said. “Yeah you don’t really seem like a club rat, or should I say club squirrel,” Yang joked. There was no laughter for her joke, only the sound of a cricket. After a minute Ringo broke the silence, “Anyway, overlooking that poor pun, I spent a lot of time in the nightclub scene when we were students.”

                As Ringo finished they turned the corner they saw the lights of the Finale and they could hear the booming music. The Finale was a large black and grey building and with no windows and decorative neon lighting across its walls. Outside the club was a line of people trying to get in but was blocked by a large bouncer. “Yikes that’s a long line,” Nora said. “Ptch, please,” Ringo said leading the group past the line and straight towards the bouncer at the velvet rope. Ringo didn’t say a word. She passed the fourteen passes to the bouncer and waved to their group. The bouncer examined the passes and opened the velvet rope letting them in while everyone in the line groaned in frustration.

                “Wow, Ringo’s got it going on,” Yang said. “If our little trip to Dues Ex was any lesson for you, it’s that we were very different before Beacon. Narco was a street thug, Ringo was a party girl, and you don’t even want to know what Lulu was like,” Matt said. “And what were you like back then?” Pyrrha asked. “Matt will never change. He’s the same guy we knew growing up,” Ruby said. Matt shifted his eyes away from everyone, “Trust me, I’ve changed a lot since then, it’s just not as black and white for me,” Matt said with a hint of shame.

                Ruby was about to ask for more information when they stepped into the main club and they were all amazed by it. Inside the club has a pretty open floor plan. Outside the club looked to be two stories tall but it was in fact three stories, the lowest being set down into the basement level. The club’s dance floor was set a level down into the ground with a wide staircase leading down to it. One either side of the dance floor were two large glass floor balconies with bars with raised bar tables and below them lounge areas with couches and tables. Opposite the entrance was a raised stage that was higher than the bar balconies with a façade designed with to look like skate ramps and rails up it and a large DJ set up on top. Moving laser lights and colorful moving spotlights were scattered around the ceiling and walls beaming colorful light and beams all over the club. The interior structure of the club was designed with various interconnecting neon glowing rails and skate ramp like structures. The dance floor lit up in various colors. The back wall behind the stage appeared to be a big screen with a constantly transforming design synced to the music. Above the bar balconies were two enclosed areas one appearing to be office space of some sort and the other a V.I.P. area. The Roof appeared to be entirely glass allowing the star light to in.

                “Wow,” Ruby said.  “Well, split up and enjoy,” Matt said and he took off for the bar. Everyone split up, team JNPR hit the dance floor, team RWBY sat down in the lounge area, team MRLN hit the bar, and Sun and Neptune started hitting on every woman with in their age range. As team RWBY sat down a waitress in a white cocktail dress came up, “May I take any drink orders?” “Strawberry Sunrise, no Ice,” Yang said. The other three looked over the drink menu, specifically the mocktail list. “Blackberry sweet tea,” Blake said. “Ginger Fizz,” Weiss added. “And I think I’ll try a… Red ginger fizz,” Ruby finished. Team RWBY began to mingle as their drinks came. As they took their drinks they looked to see Neptune getting slapped across the face by some random girl he hit on and Sun catching him. “Well it appears that didn’t go well,” Blake said.

                “How’s everybody doing tonight?” a young man asked walking up to the girls. He had blonde hair under a white trilby hat with a blue band, a bright blue collared shirt, a white blazer with the sleeves rolled back to just before the elbows, black pants, and black dress boots. A silver chain hung around his neck, a large silver watch was buckled around his wrist, and a silver wallet chain hung from his belt to his back pocket.

                “And you are?” Weiss asked. “Gorm Salvia my dear,” he said as he jumped over the back of the couch joining the girls. “I’m the co-owner of the club.” “A pleasure,” Blake said. “Now as I asked before, how is everybody doing tonight?” Gorm asked. “Pretty good, so far,” Ruby said as she sipped her drink. “I still can’t believe we got in here,” Weiss said. “Yeah maybe having that girl on the skates crash into us wasn’t such a bad thing,” Yang added. “Girl on skates?” Gorm asked. “Yeah we were walking on the street when she crashed into us. She insisted we take a bunch of passes to get in here as an apology,” Ruby said. “Oh you got hit by the Z train,” he said cryptically. “The what?” Weiss asked. Gorm chuckled as he stood up. “Eyes on the stage girls. You’ll get the joke,” he said as he walked away.

                A few minutes later the lights went dark and the music slowed to a halt. The girls got up and walked onto the dance floor when suddenly some of the floor tile lit up in the shape of a Z. A spotlight went on shining on one of the dance floor panels as it began to raise upward from the ground with Gorm standing on it. He tapped a mike in his hand testing it and spoke, “How’s everybody doing tonight?!” Everyone cheer. “I can’t hear you.” They cheered louder. “That’s better. Now we’ve all had a lot of fun tonight but know it’s time to kill the preset playlist and listen to what we really want to here.” Everyone cheered more. “For those of you who’ve been here before you know the drill but for the newbies in the house if the ground beneath your feet glows blue or pink get out of the way.” The floor lit up in demonstration. “And now without further ado, my business partner, the mistress of spin, and queen of the Finale, DJ Z!” Everyone cheered as the lights went out changing to black lights and fog began to erupt from the stage. The members of team RWBY looked to the stage to see the silhouette of a person step up to the DJ mix deck. The mix deck was a compact hybrid design with a pair of small turntables with a crossfader, volume controls and nobs between them, a set of LED preset sound keys in the middle, and a shortened piano style keyboard on the left. All the components were connected together in a single piece and illuminated by neon blue and pink LED light cords. They cracked their knuckles put their hands on the controls and started the music (Finale by Madeon Boney remix) (Time marks for the song will follow each group of actions marking start and end of a set of choreographed moves). The tempo began to build and with each increase of level several spot lights and lasers would start up until the song reached its first climax (00:00-00:49). Just them all the lights went on and the members of team RWBY could clearly see the DJ the actually the girl that had crashed into them. She started to bob her head as she mixed holding one of the phones of her headphones to her ear. The crowd started dancing. As DJ Z played team MRLN leaned against the rail of the bar balcony watching. The lights, dancefloor, and back wall flashed and changed and moved with the music. The song continued and then came to an end.

                The song came to an end and she raise her hands in peace signs yelling out, “What’s up Finale?!” Everyone cheered. “I’m DJ Z and I and proud to welcome you to my pride and joy in this screwed up world of ours.” Everyone cheered again. “I’d also like to welcome some special guest here tonight. Our current and future protectors of Remnant the students and faculty of Beacon Academy.” Suddenly several spot lights went on focusing on teams RWBY, JNPR, MRLN, Sun and Neptune. People cheered for them and they all waved a bit feeling sort of awkward. “And from what I hear some of them are pretty hot on their feet,” DJ Z said as she pressed a button and Shine started playing. The members of team JNPR looked at each other before Jaune shrugged. They stepped out into the middle of the dance floor as the crowd opened up and the recreated their big dance number from the Beacon dance. The song came to an end and everyone clapped as team JNPR took a bow and stepped off the dance floor.

                “This one’s for you guys,” DJ Z said as she stared the next song (Another One Bites the Dust vs Daft Punk). Then she picked up the entire mix deck slinging a strap over her shoulder and held it in front of her like a guitar with the piano keyboard keys pointing down in her left hand and the turn tables down at her hip with her right hand sitting over them(00:00-00:05). She slid to the side on the stage and jumped up in a spin and landed on a neon glowing rail connecting the stage down to the bar balcony railing (00:05-00:15). She grinded down the glowing rail as it turned pink under her and then continued grinding down the guard rail of the balcony before jumping over team MRLN who didn’t move from their place leaning on the rail landing on the other side and grinded down the rest of the rail (00:15-00:25). DJ Z jumped off the rail and slid down a ramp next to the stairs and road it down and into the center of the dance floor. As she continued to scratch she started to dance on her skates (00:25-00:34). As she danced the panels in the dance floor began to rise out of the ground into bright light up pillars about ten feet up (00:34-00:40). From there several pillars formed a downward ramp. She jumped down using the ramp to gain speed before hitting one of the vert ramps going up doing horizontal backflip before coming back down on another ramp further along the wall (00:40-00:50). After landing she continued towards a half wall separating the dance floor from the right side lounge. She back flipped up onto it grinding down it before flipping off the end dropping low on one skate holding the other leg out spinning wide before popping back to her feet (00:50-01:00). She jumped up grabbing onto a vertical pole next to the stage and locked the wheels of her skates on the side of the pole grabbing on with her left hand while keeping her right on the turn tables. She gunned the small but powerful motors in her skates and the wheels drove her spiraling up the pole before she flew off and skid to a halt on the stage (1:00-1:10).

                She continued to dance across the stage as the huntsmen academy students came together. “She’s amazing!” Nora said trying to talk to the others over the music. “Yeah I love this music!” Yang said over the music. “I just can’t believe she said she just knew the owner!” Ruby said over the noise. “What?!” Jaune asked. “The DJ is the girl that crashed into us and gave us the passes!” Ruby called over the sound. DJ Z continued her dancing when the main doors to the club noisily slammed open. Startled DJ Z’s hand moved wrong making the sound a needle makes when it skids off a record and the music stopped (02:00). Everyone looked to the door as a group of white fang thugs walked in. “Uh-oh,” Matt said under his breath. The students were about to reach for their scrolls to call for their rocket lockers but Matt stopped them, “Guys don’t do anything unless I tell you.” “What?” Ruby questioned. “Just trust me,” he said.

                Trying to calm the situation Gorm stepped forward. “Excuse me gentlemen, but you are disturbing our patrons, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Gorm said.  The leader of the group of White Fang members didn’t respond but instead punched Gorm in the stomach causing him to keel over and struggle to back away. “Pitiful humans, thinking you’re better than us. We heard you use the services of vendors that underpay their Faunus employees, and now you shall pay,” the leader said. Suddenly all the lights in the place started flashing red as an alarm sounded and every screen in the place including the wall read “Clear the dance floor”. Everyone in the club ran into the lounge areas as bullet proof glass raised from the ground protecting them. DJ Z jumped down onto a ramp in the front of the stage and road the momentum up to the White Fang leader before skidding to a halt. “Leave, now,” she said. “And who’s going to make us?” the lead White Fang member asked. Suddenly DJ Z spun fast on one skate whipping her leg out wide. As her leg swung out the wheels on her skate flew off the skate on cables striking the White Fang leader in the face before winding back into the skate and she came to a stop.

                “Allow me to introduce myself properly,” DJ Z said as she pressed a button on her mix deck and a song started playing (Live for the Night by Kewella). “Zuri Argent DJ, club owner…” She clicked a switch on her mix deck. She flipped her mix deck around as the strap disconnected at one end reeling into the other end. The turntables split open revealing a pair of handles. The piano section extended revealing open space between the top and bottom connect by the keys. The keys swung backwards swinging the lower bar up closing the mouth and a blade edge extended up and extending a bowie knife like tip. “And huntress,” she finished taking a fighting stance (00:00-00:05). Some of the White Fang drew swords and charged at her swinging at her. One by one they swung at her and with every verse of the song Zuri side stepped out of the way as if it was nothing (00:05-00:22). After the groups past her she swung around and swung her sword into two of them sending them flying before using the momentum to stab the blade into the ground and flipping up into an air flare with the wheels of both her skates flying out striking down a several more White Fang members both in front and behind her and then perching herself on top of the handle (00:22-00:37). As the White Fang turned back to her she back flipped off the sword and her feet drew two crescent waves of neon pink hard light that flew off her feet striking down a couple more White Fang. The White Fang turned to and opened fire on her but she kicked herself up into a sideways air flare and her skates drew a ring that turned into shield of neon pink hard light that blocked the bullets. Form there she dropping back to the ground sweeping her leg low as submachineguns unpacked along the back of her heels before popping back to her feet making several flying spin kicks with each leg each firing a volley of bullets at the White Fang (00:37-00:52).  The White Fang dove out of the way of her bullet volleys and charged back at her with their swords. Zuri grabbed her sword pulling it from the ground bringing it up blocking the simultaneous swings of four White Fang. She slipped under her sword pulling it along with her as she slid between the two in the middle pulling the legs out from under all four before popping to her feet and jump in a spin swinging her sword like a golf club sending the four flying (00:52-1:00). She flipped over her sword around and the shoulder strap launched out over her shoulder arching over her back and locked into the other side so it hanged in front of her.

                A White Fang soldier ran at her slashing with an axe but she double tapped one of the LED buttons on her mix deck and the section of the dance floor under her rocketed upward moving her out of his reach. She tapped out a pattern on the LED buttons next to the first one and a set of dance floor sections raced up changing angles into a ramp. She then flicked a switch and the turntables slid back revealing a pistol grip with a trigger. The piano section extended and the keys angled back but not as far as the sword leaving a space between them. A support handle flipped up behind the barrel and a mechanical arm extended from her backpack connecting to the back of the weapon and a conduit in it began to glow yellow. Electricity began to surge between the two sections between the keys revealing them to be magnetic accelerator rails of a high powered railgun. (1:00-1:07). She jumped up sliding sideways down the ramp next to her as she pulled the trigger on her railgun firing shots at the White Fang. As she reached the end she hit some more sound buttons as she hit a quarter-pipe flying up doing a flip and firing as she did. As she came down she did a scratch on her turn tables and several wireframe dancers made of neon light formed behind her. She converted her railgun to its sword form and spun in circles as she made a pass at the White Fang slashing two of them followed by the dancer projections danced into the remaining White Fang kicking and punching them as they danced (1:07-1:21). She hit some more preset buttons and the dance floor and a half bowl with a launch ramp at the end. She converted back to her railgun firing as she slid along the half bowl to turn her around before converting her sword flying off the launch ramp. She slashed down on one of the White Fang digging her sword into the ground before swinging herself around on the handle launching out her wheels engulfed in ice dust striking another set of White Fang before pulling the wheels back and dropping to her feet. As her feet hit the floor she pulled her sword from the ground swinging it wide sending out a neon energy wave striking back more White Fang (1:21-1:35). Zuri started tapping away at her LED pad and the dance floor sections began rocketing up one by one throwing the surprised White Fang members around like popcorn in a pot (1:35-1:44). She then converted to her railgun blasting White Fang members as they bounced around (1:44-1:53). She scratched out some sounds and more neon dancers formed dancing around striking the White Fang members as they danced about. The White Fang troops tried to get to their feet but as soon as they could a dancer would strike them back down all while Zuri circled them mixing music (1:53-2:06). Eventually the dancers dissipated and the White Fang got to their feet. They all aimed at Zuri and opened fire. She kicked off skating as she fired back with her railgun. She hit a few LED buttons causing three dance floor sections to pop up and she road behind them. However, on the other side ten of her came out skating in sync. The ten Zuris came around doing systematic spin kicks sending of neon energy waves knocking down White Fang members before they each made a close pass at them. However, some of the White Fang swung their swords striking them only for the ten Zuris to vanish into thin air (2:06-2:22). With the Zuri decoys gone the White Fang looked around trying to see where she went. (2:22-2:29). Zuri was ducked down behind the DJ stage. She continued mixing music and other Zuri decoys appeared skating around distracting them. The White Fang troops opened fire at various Zuri decoys making them vanish only for more of them to appear as they herded the White Fang together(2:29-2:43). Zuri stood up at the stage converting her mix deck to is buster sword form but connected the mechanical arm for the railgun. She reached to her back pulling a release grip. The speakers on the silver dome began to glow in various bright neon colors as they spread down the support arm and into the weapon. The blade began to glow and was engulfed by a pulsing multicolored energy blade before extending into twice the length of the original blade (2:43-3:00). She hit a few buttons forming a ramp out of dance floor sections before she jumped down onto a quarter pipe in front of the stage. She hit the ramp in the dance floor and flew over the White Fang. As she did she turned herself sideways and swung the sword under her sending all off the White Fang into the stage landing in a big pile dazed as Zuri landed spinning to a stop converting her sword to its railgun aiming at them as the song ended (3:00-3:23).

                As the White Fang stumbled to their feet Zuri eyed Matt in the crowd. He nodded upward slightly and she got the idea. She pressed a button on her mix deck and the glass roof retracted opening to the night sky. The White Fang got to their feet. “Come on you incompetent fools, she’s only one huntress!” the White Fang leader said as he aimed a handgun at Zuri and fired. Zuri didn’t move an inch. Then there were several sudden glints in the sky above them. Suddenly there was a thunder crack and Matt appeared in front of Zuri with a Glyph in his hand thrusting it forward sending out a wave of electromagnetism stopping the bullets. Then several rocket lockers rocketed in through the open roof. They opened and Matt latched onto the weapons inside flinging them out to their respective huntsmen, huntresses, and students throughout the club who caught their weapons. One more locker flew over but instead of hitting the ground it flew over dropping Matt’s equipment. He magnetized them pulling his Bolt Shrikes, Talons, and Seraphs into their holsters. He then caught Storm Reaper spinning it converting it to its scythe form.

                “I’m guessing you’re not from around here, not expecting to run into much resistance. But this is the huntsmen capital of Remnant. THIS IS VALE!” Matt called out holding his hands out gesturing to everything around him as all the huntsmen, huntresses, and students unpacked their weapons aiming at the White Fang. “So as the old cliché goes there’s only one question,” Matt said as he let out his talons opening their guns and aiming his sword in rifle for at them. “Do you feel lucky?” he asked.

                Suddenly they heard an ear piercing howl. They heard a small crash and the power went out. People started muttering in panic. Suddenly a large animalist shadow appeared in the skylight and leapt down into club. It was dark and difficult to see but it looked like a wolf that stood upright. People thought it was a Beowolf and a woman screamed. The White Fang panicked and opened fire in all directions as everyone opened fire. With every shot the muzzle flashes provided little flashes of light. During these flashes Ruby could make out a few more details. It was defiantly not a Beowolf. It was far more muscular and had no bone armor like normal Beowolves. It was at least eight feet tall with wolf like feet that stood only on the toes with big red claws. It had a wolf like head with a spread mane blown back at the back and backward pointed ears. It had black fur with red tips on the mane. The Creature appeared to be wearing some sort of clothing. It wore blue jeans with brown leather patches on the knees and an open red vest with yellow details on the front like animal eyes, a black fur collar, and black fraying on the arms and hem. A brown leather strap ran from the right shoulder across its chest connecting a brown leather spaulder with short metal spikes and a small mechanical backpack on the back. It had white scars across its exposed chest, on its right arm, and on the snout. But the most unique feature was its entire left arm appeared to be mechanical the forearm appeared to be a cylindrical like a piston with the piston extending back beyond the elbow. The hand had five large knife-like claws and a red glowing dust emitter in the palm. A small glowing red tube ran along its arm and shoulder blade into its backpack. Various red dust conduits are exposed in under the plating of the arm. But the most disturbing feature was its glowing red eyes.

                The creature swung its huge claw around knocking back White Fang and students as they tried to fight the creature. Ruby dashed towards the creature in a zig zag approach when she tried to slash it when the beast held up its open mechanical hand. Energy surged as its color changed to a dark purple color into the palm and let out a pulse wave that sent Ruby flying back. Ringo jumped up quick catching her as she let some seeds in her belt grow out into a dense pad of moss formed on her back dampening the impact as they hit the wall. Team JNPR charged at the creature. Ren and Jaune came at it from the sides as Jaune blocked it trying to strike him with his right paw before he swung his sword striking its leg. The creature howled in pain as Ren slid under its flailing claw trying to slash the energy conduit on the arm but was knocked away. Pyrrha and Nora charged at it up the middle. Pyrrha dropped into a slide holding her shield above her. Nora leaped onto the shield and Pyrrha used her magnetic semblance to propel her up into the air. As she launched Nora, Pyrrha jumped and tumbled between the creature’s legs before jumping up behind it trying to stab her sword into the beast’s backpack. However, the creature spun around fast striking Pyrrha with its left elbow before swatting Nora out of the air as she tried to come down striking with its claw. Everyone remaining opened fire and the creature leapt up through the sky light and fled.

                Unfortunately while they were fighting the creature the White Fang made their escape. Gorm closed the club up early and everyone left. Matt ordered the students to go back to Beacon while he and the faculty dealt with the police. He had Narco rush ahead to fire up the bullhead while the students followed later. As team RWBY and everyone walked back to the Bullhead when Yang asked, “Matt knew that DJ when she ran into us didn’t you?” “Yeah probably, Matt seems to know everyone,” Jaune said. “Excuse me,” they heard behind them.

                Everyone turned around to see two people behind them, a man and a woman. They both wore black rectangular sunglasses, white dress shirts, black two-piece suits, black neck ties, black office leather shoes, and each carried a silver metal briefcase. They both had silver hair with black roots, the man’s being short, and the woman’s being in a ponytail. They both stood very stiff with absolutely no emotion on their faces.

                Ruby was about to ask who they were when they spoke. “My name is Agent White this is my associate Agent Black,” the man said. “You were in the dance club known as the Finale a few minutes ago?’ the woman asked. “Well yeah we…” Weiss began to say when she was cut off by Agent White. “While you were there, the club was attacked by a strange creature is that correct?” Agent White asked. “Yeah it was…” Blake tried before she was cut off. “Do you know which direction it was going when it fled?” Agent Black asked. “East I think, but I can’t be…” Ruby said before being cut off. “Thank you for your time,” White said before she could finish. The two strange agents turned around and walked away.

                “That was weird,” Ruby said. “Hey did anyone get a good look at that ‘thing’ at the club?” Jaune asked. “It wasn’t a creature of Grimm that’s for sure. It was seemed to be wearing some sort of clothes,” Ren said. “And its arm was made of metal,” Ruby added. “What about those two in the suits, they seemed to know something,” Weiss said. “Maybe we should ignore this. Doesn’t Matt always say we shouldn’t get involved in weird things,” Blake said. “Aren’t we kind of already involved?” Ruby said. “I don’t know about you guys, but I intend to go back to Beacon go to bed and forget about this,” Sun said as he laced his fingers behind his head. “I think Sun has the right idea. I still got a paper to work on,” Yang said. “You still haven’t finished that paper for Oobleck’s class?” Weiss asked. “You guys know I’m a slow writer. How far are you guys?” Yang asked. “I finished that paper Thursday,” Ruby said. “Blake and I finished last week,” Weiss said. “Oh Dust I’m screwed. I barley have two out of eight pages,” Yang gripped. “And its due Tuesday,” Blake added. “I’m Screwed,” Yang Gripped pushing her bangs back as they reached the landing pad and went back to Beacon.

                 It took all day Sunday, all Yang’s free time for the rest of the week, thirty-two pots of black coffee, and the other members of team Ruby keeping her focused, but Yang finally got her paper done. It wasn’t pretty and probably wasn’t work anymore than a B- but it was passable. After Oobleck’s class and turning in their papers the first years had a lecture with Matt. The students all sat in the lecture hall talking waiting for their professor. Matt walked in a few minutes later on his scroll. From his tone he seemed angry. “I told you people, it’s not happening. You cannot use them. You people lost the dang thing, you people can find it. Now if you would excuse me I have a class to teach,” Matt said as he hung up. He pocketed his scroll and rubbed the bridge of his nose under his glasses composing himself.

                He clapped his hands together rubbing them as he greeted his class, “Morning folks,” as he stepped to the chalkboard at the front of the lecture hall. He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote across the top board “Combat Classification, Team Stability, and Combat Combo planning.” Putting the chalk down, he drew one of his Seraph machine pistols converting it to its sword form. Ruby and the girls could easily see Cardin and his goons becoming uneased by this, Matt’s constant hounding of the bullies was starting to get to them. However, he didn’t attack anyone. Instead he simply tapped the point against the board using the blade as a pointing stick. “Can anyone tell me what this means?” he asked the class gesturing his sword at the words. No one answered. “Personally I’m not surprised, not a lot of people think about this during their time in combat school. Back then you were focused on fighting alone but now that you’re here at Beacon you are fighting in teams. Today we will be talking about how you work as a team,” Matt said as he moved to the side of the board. “Every huntsman and huntress has a combat classification. It’s the specific function a huntsman has in the field especially in relation to your teammates.” Matt pulled out his scroll opening it to a tablet and activated a projected screen. As the pixels of the screen cleared the students were surprise. What they saw was the opening screen to Farlong Online one of the most popular MMORPG games in Remnant.

                “Who here has ever played an MMORPG?” Matt asked the class. Several students including Ruby and Jaune raised their hands. “Nerds!” Cardin called out. Matt threw up his sword and dropped a knife out of his sleeve into his hand. He threw the knife straight up where it struck a light fixture deflecting back down right into the seat between Cardin’s legs. Cardin yelled like a scared puppy as Matt’s sword came back down and he caught it by the handle. “I’ll expect you to return that to me at the end of class Mr. Winchester,” he said and the class laughed at the bully a little.

                “Believe it or not but MMORPGs like this are actually an excellent example of this,” Matt said. He turned to Cardin, “And I spent a lot of my childhood playing these games,” he said making Cardin eat his own words. “Who can tell me what the party triangle is?” he asked the class. Ruby raised her hand. Matt pointed to her with his blade signaling her to speak. “It’s a theoretical diagram that defines how to balance a game party between damage takers, damage dealers, and healers.” “Exactly, in games like these players assemble teams between people with high defensive capabilities to distract enemies and take the brunt of the damage that other players couldn’t survive, players with high damage capabilities that can take out enemies fast while the defensive players take the damage, and healers that replenish the health of damaged players and bolster their stats. Now off course we don’t live in a videogame, but a huntsman or huntress have a classification similar to game classes,” Matt said.

                He tapped his scroll and the screen vanished. He went to the board and started drawing an inverted tree chart. At the top he wrote huntsman. Under that he wrote four categories with lines to them. He pointed to the first one with his sword, it was marked “Ranger” and had a picture of a rifle under it. “First we have the Ranger class. Rangers specialize in range projectile weapons.” He moved to the next point it was marked “Mage” with an image of a magic wand under it. “Some people find this confusing but Mages do not have the ability to use actual magic. Mages have combat styles that usually focus on the use of dust or semblance.” He moved to the next point marked “Speed Fighter” with a picture of a katana with movement lines. “Speed fighters depend on mobility, reflexes, agility, and stealth over damage or defensive capabilities. What they lack in the ability to deal high damage in one hit, they make up for with accuracy against weak points and making more strikes per second.” He moved to the last point marked “Heavy” with the image of a shield and a battle axe under it. “The heavy is a fighter that uses heavy weapons meant to deal high damage per hit at the cost of strikes per second. Heavies are also built to distract and absorb damage as well.”

                Matt jumped up sitting on the desk as he asked “Now can anyone identify what their primary kind of combat class they are and why?” Ren raised his hand and Matt pointed to him. “I would say I’m a speed fighter,” Ren said. “perfect,” Matt said. “I’m a speed fighter,” Blake said. “Check,” Matt said confirming. “I feel like a heavy hitter!” Nora blurted out as she mimed herself slamming her hammer. “Right on the money,” Matt said. “I think I’m a speed fighter,” Yang said. “Actually no you’re not. Yang you are classified as a heavy,” Matt said jumping off the desk. The class was confused. “I don’t get it. I’ve seen Yang fight and she punches so fast and hits so many time,” Ruby argued. “Well your confusion is because we haven’t discussed the subclasses,” Matt said as he added several more points to the tree chart, five attached to the Ranger class, five to the Mage class, three to the Speed Fighter, and three to the Heavy.

                Matt tapped the board with his sword. “Now something you must understand is that most huntsmen and huntresses fall under more than one class and subclass. Ruby falls under both Ranger and Speed Fighter classes, Nora is classified as a Heavy and a Ranger, pretty much anyone with a transforming weapon falls under multiple classification. But we were talking about Yang so we’ll start with the Heavy subclasses.”

                Matt tapped the first subclass which read “Hitter” with a battle axe under it. “The Hitter class are those who specialize in dealing the most damage with each hit instead of in multiple strikes.” Matt hit a button on his scroll and the screen projected with video of Lulu with her axe and Nora with her hammer. “Huntresses like Lulu Lavender, and Nora with heavy powerful weapons.” He moved the next point marked “Tank” with a shield under it. “Tanks are damage sponges. Their job is to keep bad guys busy and keep them attacking them,” Matt explained. “So Yang is a Tank then,” Ruby said. “Not quite,” Matt said changing videos to those of Jaune with his sword and shield out and Zaffre Steel with his lance and shield. “Tanks are more like Jaune Arc and Zaffre Steel. Yang does qualify as a Tank but her primary classification is the last subclass known as the Brawler,” Matt said pointing to the last point marked “Brawler” with a pair of boxing gloves under them. “Brawlers are a very specific subclass. Most close combat subclasses have a wider range of weapons but Brawlers have very specific choice in weapons. Brawlers specialize in close hand to hand fighting combining combo fighting of speed fighters with the striking power of a Hitter. Brawler fighting styles come from various martial arts and even some animalistic styles.” Matt change the screen to video of Yang, Mercury, Razor Silver with his claws out, and Narco with his new Street Ripper Knuckle. “Brawlers pretty much only use gauntlet or boot based weapons, usually those for punching or those with claws.” “So then that huntress from the club last weekend was a brawler?” Ruby asked. “No Ruby she wasn’t she falls under a subclass in the Speed Fighters class,” Matt said as he closed the screen and moved to the Speed Fighter section of the board.

                He tapped the first subclass marked “Mobile Fighter” with a pair of running legs under it. “That huntress falls under the Mobile Fighter subclass. Mobile fighters specialize in out maneuvering their opponents and taking them out with rapid combos. Brawlers usually use blunt strike weapons or claws not wheels.” Matt opened the screen with Blake, Elica Vunderkind, and Zorro Obsidian. “Huntsmen and huntresses like Blake Belladonna, Elica Vunderkind, and Zorro Obsidian are perfect examples of mobile fighters.” Matt point to the next subclass marked “Assassin” with a throwing star and a little scarf coming of it. “Assassins are sneaky types. Unlike most Subclasses they focus on avoiding direct confrontation. They prefer to sneak up on foes and take them out with a single strike to a critical weak point.” Matt pulled up videos of Ash Kage and Stoker Alucard. “Ash Kage and Stoker Alucard are examples of Assassin’s but they tend to be rather rare as a specialty.” Matt pointed to the last Subclass marked “Counter Fighter” with a pair of sword clashing. “Counter fighters focus on countering enemy attacks and using the openings left after an attack to strike.” He opened videos of Lonan Straight, Denim Rough, and Pyrrha Nikos. “Counter fighters like Lonan focus on closely dodging the initial attack and then strikes as the target passes closely to him, while fighters like Pyrrha deflect it and then strike while the target is getting their bearings.”

                “Next we have the Mage subclasses,” Matt said pointing to the first subclass marked “Assault Mage” with a fireball flying under it. “Assault Mages have semblances or use dust to attack enemies.” He opened videos of himself with lightning glyphs surging in his hands, Kirk Purgatory manipulating fire, and Clancy Philosiph with several dust crystals floating around him. “Most Assault Mages have abilities to manipulate energy or aggressive elements. For example, I fire lightning, Kirk Purgatory manipulates fire, and Clancy Philosiph has a telekinetic control over dust.” He pointed to the next subclass marked “Field Manipulator” with a set of little mountains under it. “Field Manipulators alter the battlefield itself in favor of themselves and their allies.” He opened videos of Ringo Sky manipulating hug vines and trees, Rouge Garnet whipping out nets with her threads, and Weiss bouncing around off Glyphs “For example, my own partner Ringo can drastically restructure an area turning a flat parking lot into a jungle obstacles to allow you to out maneuver foes, Rouge Garnet sets traps with her threads, and Weiss makes glyphs that let her bounce round and traverse difficult areas.” He pointed to the next subclass marked “Support Mage” with a medical cross under it. “Support mages have the job of keeping their allies fighting by healing them, powering up their allies, and weakening their foes.” He opened videos of Oralie Coin with some of her key glyphs, Iola Titania healing someone with her semblance, and Elica Vunderkind’s counterpart Regina Heart with her heart and club glyphs. “Oralie key has glyphs that unlock a person’s full power. Iola Titania has the power to heal injuries, and Regina Heart can increase people’s speed and attack power.” Matt pointed to the next subclass marked “Summoner” with a pair of cartoony little monsters under it. “Summoners are pretty rare. They have the ability to summon semi-sentient creatures of sorts that fight for them.” He opened videos of Lulu with her golems, Lucian Tartarus with his bone gremlins, and Matt with a group of his stormling creatures. “So basically their cowards that let mindless creatures do the fighting for them,” Cardin said. Matt was facing the board but several glyphs formed on the ground in front of the desk and several wolves made of lightning rose out of them and charged at Cardin. Cardin shrieked in fear as he raised his arms to protect himself. The wolves leapt at him before dissipating just before striking. “Trust me summoners are no cowards. You’ve meant Lulu Lavender; does she seem like a coward?” Matt asked the class. The class started thinking of Lulu the professor that would rip their arms of if they looked at her funny and they all shivered. “Finally we have the Trickster,” Matt said pointing to the point marked “Trickster” with a magic hat under it. “Tricksters are Mage class huntsmen and huntresses that specialize in altering their foe’s perception and confusing them. Tricksters have various methods ranging from altering perception and inducing hallucinations, to creating decoys and illusions.” He opened videos of Reviol Vunderkind and his disorienting eyes and Cheshire Amethyst with her nine decoys. “Some with mobility based semblances can also be considered tricksters when used right.” He opened videos of Narco Grizzle exiting a shadow and Zorro Obsidian teleporting. “Huntsmen who use these skills to out flank foes and keep them confused can be classified as Tricksters.”

                Matt moved to the Ranger subclasses. “As we have already established Rangers focus on projectile based weapons.” He tapped the first subclass marked “Marksman” with a sniper rifle under it. “Marksmen are snipers with sniper rifle and anti-material rifles. The best snipers can take out a target two miles out,” Matt said as he opened videos of Ringo with her boomerang in its sniper rifle mode, Lucian Tartarus with his gun in its rifle mode, and Ruby with Crescent Rose in Rifle mode. “However, there are huntsmen and huntresses who have been known to get the same results with a bow and arrow,” he said opening a video of Talon Forest with his bow. He tapped the next point “Rifleman” with an assault rifle under it. “Unlike Marksmen, Riflemen fight at mid-range, usually with semi-automatic and automatic rifles,” Matt said as he opened videos of Arlind Palomino with his rifle, Sterling Icarus with his crossbow, and Al Scar with her Tommy gun. “Rifleman tend to fight from cover running from cover point to cover point exchanging fire. Archers have also been known to be effective in this position.” He tapped the next point, “Gunner” with a machinegun under it. “Gunners specialize in putting a lot of bullets down range with rapid fire weapons,” he said opening videos of Coco with her machinegun, Lulu with her machine gun, and Zaffre Steel with his arm in its machinegun mode. “Of course, a Gunner’s job isn’t really to destroy the enemy, its mainly to provide cover fire and make the enemy keep their heads down allowing their team to move easier.” He moved to the next point “Artilleryman” with a cannon under it. “Artillerymen are like gunner providing cover however, they do it with explosive projectiles was splash damage as well as taking out larger targets with powerful shots.” He opened videos of Nora with her grenade launcher, Lulu with her rocket launcher, and Kirk Purgatory with his cross cannon. “Weapon choices for Artillerymen vary, but the usual choices are grenade launcher, rocket launcher, or cannon based.” Matt then pointed to the last point “Gunslinger” with a pair of crossed revolvers. “Finally my favorite Ranger subclass, the Gunslinger,” Matt said as he converted his sword back to his machine pistol form spinning it on his finger. “Unlike the other Ranger subclasses, Gunslingers fight at close range combat. In many ways they’re a hybrid between a Ranger and a Mobile Fighter. They focus on avoiding enemy strikes and maneuvering themselves into position to fire at weak points.” Matt opened videos of Scotch Marshal with his revolvers, Ren with his machine pistols, and Doyle Twist with his card gun. “Gunslingers usually only use smaller fire arms so pistols, machine pistols, and submachine guns usually either a single one or a pair of them.”

                “Wait Matt I’m confused, what about Penny? What would she be classified as?” Ruby asked. “Miss Polendina uses modular attack units like my Talons, Rune Gremlins snake heads, or Starr Orion’s star bolts. Modular attack units like that are classified as an Assault Mage. Off course she falls under more than just that. Most huntsmen and huntresses fall under more than one classification. Penny is an Assault Mage, Rifleman, and a Counter Fighter and Ruby Rose is classified as a Mobile Fighter, Counter Fighter and Marksmen,” Matt said as he holstered his gun and picked up his scroll tablet. He closed the display screen and continued tapping at the tablet. “Everyone please open you tablets. I’ve sent you all files with you classifications.” Everyone took out their scrolls opening them to read their classifications.

                “I appear to be a Counter Fighter, Field Manipulator, and a rifleman,” Pyrrha read. “I’ve been classified as a Support Mage, Field Manipulator, Mobile Fighter, and Counter Fighter. I’m surprised I’m not classified as a Summoner,” Weiss said. “Classification only counts abilities you’ve proven you can do. You still haven’t managed to pull it off yet,” Matt said.

                “Now with the Vytal Festival coming up your first rounds will be four on four rounds followed by two on two in the second round. You will need to effectively work together in the field. So we will be discovering how your teams should position themselves and how you will develop and use combo attacks. So let’s start with…”

                Just then they heard someone clear their throat at the door. Everyone looked to see the two agents from the club. “Excuse us professor, may we have a word?” Agent White Asked. Matt held his finger to them singling them to wait. He turned to the class. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I have to deal with this. Read chapter nine in your combat textbooks and work with your teams to come up with some strategies and combo ideas and we will review them next class. Class dismissed,” he said in a slightly frustrated tone. The class began to leave as Matt stepped over to the agents. “Let’s speak in my office,” team RWBY heard Matt say to the agents as he herded them out.

                That evening team RWBY and JNPR were walking by Matt’s office on the way back from sparring when they heard yelling coming from inside. “What’s that?” Jaune asked. “Sounds like Matt’s arguing with someone,” Weiss said. “Think he and Ringo are having a lovers spat?” Yang asked. Ren closed his eyes and focused his hearing, “No, I hear three voices, Matt’s, one male, one female.” “Those two suits from last night?” Nora asked. “I can’t be sure,” Ren said. “Well there’s one way to find out,” Yang said putting her ear to the door. The others followed suit pressing an ear to the wood.

                Inside they heard the voices more clearly now and could tell he was definitely arguing with the agents from the night club. “I told you no!” Matt yelled at them. “Professor the is a very important mission. If it is not captured soon there is no telling what damage it could cause. Please think rationally,” Agent Black said and the same emotionless tone as before. “You people are the ones who should have thought rationally when they made that, that, that thing. I mean what were they thinking?” Matt yelled. “That it would be able to turn the tide in the war on the Grimm,” Agent White said. “And now you can’t control it and you want us to take care of it, and to make matters worse you want to use the students. Your bosses made that creature, your people can catch it,” Matt said. The students could hear footsteps and realized that they were walking towards the door they were listening through. They all scrambled moving to the side out of the way. The door opened and the two agents were shoved out as Matt sternly said, “Good day!” The two agents turned to look at the door then to the group of students who all tried to make it look like they weren’t doing anything. The agents ignored them and walked off. “Well that was interesting,” Weiss said. “Anyone interested in finding out more?’ Yang asked.

                The group of students followed the two agents off the campus and into Vale. They followed the agents at a distance as they walked through the city and into the industrial district. The area was deserted this time of night but the two agents continued. The two agents stopped as Agent White pulled a scroll from his briefcase. The two agents looked down at the scroll and began to move again following some form of instructions from some sort. They continued through the industrial district when Agent White held up his hand signaling Agent Black to stop. Then they heard a howling and looked up to see the silhouette of the creature from the night club against the shattered moon.

                “Ready?” Agent White asked. “Ready,” Agent Black said. They each clicked a switch on the handle of their briefcase and they transformed. Agent White’s briefcase split horizontally up the middle and flipped the bottom half out flipped back locking the two halves into a long boxy scabbard as a handle with a handguard extended out the end. Agent Black’s Briefcase split into multiple sections extending into a spear with a rectangular shaft, a blocky section on the back end of the shaft, and a long bowie knife like blade with a serrated back edge and a green glowing edge on the end. Agent White held his scabbard to his left hip and gripped the handle of the sword in it.

                “Get a vantage point and cover me, I’ll take it head on,” Agent White said. “Got it,” Agent Black said. She turned and ran towards one of the warehouses and Agent White charged towards the creature. Agent Black slammed the butt of her spear onto the ground and it expended carrying her up onto the roof of a two story warehouse before retracting back to normal. She ran along the rooftops following her partner until she reached the edge of a building at an intersection. She dropped sliding to the edge of the roof clicking a switch on her spear. She flipped the weapon over so the spearhead was facing her as its blade retracted and the end weight slid back to the blade as it converted into a buttstock and extended a scope becoming a sniper rifle. As she slid to a stop, she dropped into a sitting position with her left leg resting on the ground and her right knee up over the left resting her rifle on the right knee. She took aim at the creature and opened fire. In the distance the students could see the creature recoiling as it was hit with each shot. As soon as she ran out of rounds the creature turned towards the agents and leapt off the roof it was on charging at them. It was running towards them when Agent White intercepted it midair. He ran towards it when his body began to glow green and a copy of him similar to one of Blake’s shadow clones leapt from his body, however it appeared to be wearing a full facemask with goggles with green glowing eyes behind them. The copy spun around locking its fingers together which Agent White stepped into and the copy slung him up into the air. He flew towards the creature gripping the handle of his sword and drew slashing the creature midair. As he landed spinning and skidding to a stop the students could see his sword was like a straight bowie knife with a serrated back edge and a glowing green edge before he slid the blade back into the scabbard.

                As the creature was slashed it flew in the opposite direction and slammed into a wall. Agent Black leapt off the roof across the street towards the creature converting her weapon to its spear form stabbing the blade at it. However, the creature swung its left arm swatting her away. She flew towards the street when two copies of herself like Agent White’s formed but hers each had a ponytail. The two copies caught her so she landed on her feet. The copies vanished and she converted her weapon to its sniper rifle form firing at the beast. The creature held up its open metal claw and the palm let out a radiating black wave of gravity dust that stopped the bullets in their tracks. The creature forced itself out of the crater it was in in the wall trying to go after Agent Black but was intercepted. Agent White slid in front of the creature delivering a series of slashes. The creature backed off before slashing at Agent White with its claw. Agent White held up his scabbard and let it take the brunt of the strike. He was thrown back, flipping over to land skidding on his feet. He charged back at it. As he ran towards the beast four copies of him formed, two on each side running with him. Agent White dropped behind the copies as they advance and jumped at the beast each taking a slash at it one by one. Each strike force the creature to take a step back as Agent White got in close delivering a slash before he hooked the scabbard over the creature’s shoulder, flipping himself over onto its back. He slammed the sword back into the scabbard clicking a switch causing the weapon to transform. The handle converted to a buttstock, a pistol grip flipped out the bottom, large munitions clip flipped into place in front of it, three large gun barrels popped out of the end, a shotgun primer pump extended out the bottom, and green lights lit up across the . He put the gun to the creature’s backpack, pumped the primer pump and pulled the trigger unleashing a blast that sent the creature flying into the ground. Agent White flew back letting the gun’s recoil push him way. He flipped back landing against a wall on his feet jumping off it. He landed on the street pumping the primer and fired again. The creature dove out of the way and charged at Agent White. He fired off several more shots at the creature but it dodged them all. White ejected the magazine in his gun replacing it with one from inside his jacket when the beast slashed at him.

                On instinct Agent White held up his gun to protect himself with it. The beast struck the weapon with its claw knocking it from the agent’s hands before punching him with its normal paw knocking him back. He slammed into a dumpster before staggering to his feet. He reached into his coat and pulled out a short submachine gun similar to an MP5K firing at the creature. “Black go!” he called out as he circled the creature firing. As Agent White distracted the creature as Agent Black ran at the creature with her spear. She stopped short just behind the creature before slamming the butt of her spear into the ground pulling the extension trigger causing the blade to rocket forward into its back knocking it to its paws and knees. Agent White clicked a switch on his gun causing it to transform. The main body flipped up running parallel to the pistol grip, the magazine folded down as a handguard, the fore grip folds down, and the body extends into a two foot baton as electrodes then extended from the baton body and handguard. “Shock it!” White called out. Agent Black reached into her own jacket and pulled out a handgun based on an AMT AutoMag V. She clicked a switch and the main body flipped straight and extended into a baton with electrodes. Together the two agents leapt onto the creature with their electrically charged batons striking its joints trying to stun it. They continued to strike the beast until it decided to fight back.

                The creature forced the two agents off its back sending them both flying into a wall dazed and causing them to drop their weapons and before they could come to their senses, the creature grabbed them in its paw. “We got to do something,” Jaune said. “Let’s get it,” Ruby said reaching for her scythe when shots rang out. They looked to see Ringo jumping off a rooftop with her boomerang slashing down at it. “What’s Ringo doing here?” Weiss asked. Suddenly a Bullhead came in above them setting down in the street in front of them and Lulu jumped out with Skull Breaker in its machine gun form firing at the beast. Ruby turned around to the others. “What are they doing here?” she asked. The others huddle together with her. “You know those guys can’t leave anything alone. Matt probably sent them,” Weiss said. “We should help,” Ruby said reaching for Crescent Rose when they heard someone clear their throat behind them. They all looked to see Narco with his shotgun pointed at them. “Hit the deck!” he called to them and on instinct they drop to the asphalt as Narco pulled the trigger and the shot flew over them striking the creature who had snuck up on the students when they weren’t paying attention. The students looked up to see Narco jumping over them slashing the beast with his chainsaw causing it to back off and down the street. They looked to Narco as he loaded new shells into his shotgun. He looked over his shoulder to them with a stern look. “Get in the bullhead now. DO NOT try to engage that thing,” he said in a stern as he aimed the shotgun one handed towards the creature and fired again. The students had never heard Narco use such a tone. Narco was usually such a happy go lucky guy but Narco angry scared them. They listened to his orders and scurried into the aircraft. Narco jumped in after them and got to the controls of the aircraft. Ringo then jumped in as Lulu backed up to the hatch still firing at the thing. The creature was backing away holding its claw up projecting its pulse shield blocking the shots, still carrying the two unconscious agents in its paw. Lulu jumped into the bullhead taking a knee and kept firing as the bullhead rose into the air. The beast turned and began to run. Lulu set her machine gun down drawing her hand cannon. She popped out the drum dumping a shell out and replacing it with a new one before reloading it. She took aim at the creature and fired one shot. It struck it right in the shoulder but it stead of penetrating it stuck to the side with a blinking a little red light. Narco pulled away from the seen as Lulu stepped back from the hatch holstering her gun. She gripped the one of the standing hand holds as Ringo sat on one of the jump seats. They both gave the group of students stern looks as Lulu said, “Matt is not going to be happy.”

                The flight back to Beacon was spent in silence. When they arrived at Beacon Lulu pointed towards the school. “Matt’s office, now,” she said sternly. They marched the students up to Matt’s office. There they found him looking at his map screen which had a map of Vale and the area around it up. He too did not look happy. The students silently lined up behind Matt. Ruby opened her mouth to say something when Matt raised his hand silencing her, he didn’t even turn to see them. The atmosphere was tense. No one moved, the students barely even breathed. Then Matt spoke. He didn’t face them, turning from the map as he said, “What have I told you about getting involved in official business?” He asked. Yang was about to speak when he cut her off, “And do not say,” he used a cliché fake feminine voice, “But you take us along on jobs all the time,” he went back to his normal voice, “I only do that when I know you can handle it or I have absolutely no other choice.” Matt dropped his head into hand shaking it. “Well I guess I don’t have any choice now.”

                “Matt what is that thing?” Weiss asked. Matt took out his scroll tapping a few buttons. His map screen changed to a rotating three dimensional image of the creature with a description box and a box of statistics and other information. “The closest thing it has to a name is Experimental Specimen 132. It’s a genetically modified and cybernetic enhanced lifeform designed to be the perfect Grimm killing machine,” Matt said. The students all got closer to the screen to get a better look. “Who made this thing?” Nora asked. “More importantly, why would they make such a monstrosity?” Ren added. “We don’t know who exactly made it. White and Black where not too forthcoming about that, they just gave us this data on it. Apparently their employers are some genetics lab working on making something better than androids. They wanted something smarter, stronger, and more powerful than android soldiers. They created this creature to be superior to the android troops. You saw what it did at the Finale, it’s far more capable than any foot soldier or android and it can even stand against huntsmen or huntresses,” Matt said. “So what’s it doing here?” Yang asked. “Unfortunately, it proved to be feral, it went wild. The thing tore its way out of a facility north of Vale and it’s been running ramped for the past week,” Matt explained. “Why did it take the Agents? It doesn’t seem like the type to take prisoners,” Blake asked. “The creature is a living thing so it does have an aura. However, do to the fact it’s genetically engineered its aura is incomplete. It needs to feed on the aura of others to replenish its own aura. It took them to use as aura batteries. It will probably suck them to the brink then let their aura’s regenerate to feed on again. That’s why it attacked the night club. It was full of huntsmen and huntresses with active auras it could sense, perfect fuel source for it,” Matt said. “So, what now?” Ruby asked. “Agents White and Black came to me asking for assistance. They wanted to use the student body as an army to search for it, but I thought it was too dangerous so I blew them off. Unfortunately the situation’s changed now that it’s taking hostages.”

                “So we round up all the students and go get the thing,” Yang said cracking her knuckles. “The twelve of us are it,” Matt said. “What?” Jaune asked. “Do you guys ever read your yearly schedule? You have a four day weekend. Everyone left town for the long weekend. Pretty much the whole student body went to the beaches at Saint Carnival for the weekend, Port went on a hunting trip with some of his old hunting buddies, Oobleck went with Becky to a Dust conference in Magnum Opus, Glynda went to go see her sister, and I don’t even know where Ozpin decided to vanish to. The Twelve of us are the only ones left in town,” Matt said. “So it’s up to us to catch it,” Weiss said. “No, capturing it went out the window as soon as it took hostages, we are not taking it alive,” Matt said. He switched the screen back to the map pointing to a blinking dot on the map. “Lulu tagged the creature when they pulled you eight out of there. It headed south into the forests outside of the agricultural district and appears to have stopped,” Matt said. He walked over to one of his bookcases pulling on a book causing it to spin around revealing his equipment. “Go stock your ammo and grab something to eat; we’re going to be out there all night. Meet at the hanger in an hour,” he said as he loaded his weapons placing them in their respective holsters and storing extra clips.

                It was nine in the evening when they piled into a bullhead and took off towards the southern border of Vale. They set down outside the agricultural district in the south edge of Vale. Everyone climbed out of the aircraft with their weapons drawn. Matt took out his scroll opening the tracking data. “Alright according to the tracking data it’s about a mile south of here. Let’s go,” Matt said.

                The group walked cautiously through the woods, weapons ready just in case. “How much farther,” Weiss whispered as they entered a small clearing. Matt took out his scroll opening the tracking data. “Oh no,” he said stopping dead holding up his hand singling them to stop. Matt took a few stepped forward before kneeling and picking something up. “What’s that?” Jaune asked. Matt turned around holding up a small disk with a blinking red light on it. “The tracer,” Matt said. Suddenly there was the sound of a twig snapping and everyone aimed in some direction fearing attack. “This thing is smarter than I thought,” Matt said standing up dusting his hands off. “Alright Lulu, you see any trail around here?” Matt asked. Lulu hooked her machine gun to the side of her pack stepping forward. Even though it was the middle of the night she was still wearing her aviators. She tipped them down as she knelt down examining the ground. She touched the ground and the students realized she was touching a footprint made by the creature. “You’re right this thing is smart. It looks like it clawed the tracer off itself here,” Lulu said. She followed the direction of the tracks. “It went this way,” she said. “Alright let’s go,” Weiss said. “Wait,” Lulu said walking back along the path of the tracks. “Yes it is smart, it doubled back walking backwards on its own footprints,” Lulu said following the tracks backward to the edge of the clearing. “You can see where it couldn’t quite line up its feet trying to step into its own prints,” she said pointing it out. “Lulu as much as I appreciate you initiative as an educator, we don’t have the time for a lesson in tracking,” Matt said. The tracks ended at a bush at the edge of the clearing. She examined it to find some of its branches cracked. She followed the trail back before finding a path of dirt pushed aside signaling the tracks where going off away from the original trail. “It went this way,” she said. She followed the path till she found some more broken branches on a live plant. She ran her thumb over the branch feeling that sap was wet. “The sap’s still wet. I’d say it was hear no more than half an hour ago,” she said. “Alright, let’s move,” Matt said.

                They advanced quickly when Matt signaled them to stop. “Alright spread out, keep your eyes open,” Matt said. They spread out in a wide line sweeping through the area. The air was tense as they swept through the woods. Ringo was on the far end of the sweep, a good twenty feet from Nora on the sweep. Nora looked over to the Ringo as they passed on either side of a thick grove of trees blocking her view. She reached the other side only to see Ringo was not there. “Ringo?” Nora called out. There was no answer. Curious Nora carefully walked towards the other side of the grove. Suddenly everyone heard Nora scream in terror, several grenades going off, and a roar of the creature. Ren was the first to respond followed by team RWBY, Matt, and Narco. They reached the far side of the grove to find a scorch marks from Nora’s launcher grenades, claw marks from the creature, and a path in the dirt where something appeared to be dragged. “Nora!” Ren cried out in fear for his partner’s safety. Matt knelt to the drag path running his fingers over it. “It has them,” he said. Suddenly they heard machinegun fire followed by several shots from revolver and Lulu yelling, “Drop dead you freak!” They ran towards the sound of Lulu yelling only for the noise to stop cold. They broke into a small clearing to find Skull Breaker in its axe form sticking out of the ground and the area riddled with bullets. “How is this thing moving so fast?!” Ren said. Narco pulled Skull Breaker out of the ground compacting it and slinging its strap over his shoulder. “I am going to cut this thing to shreds,” Narco said gritting his teeth.

                “Alright it looks like it headed west. There’s ridge about a half mile west with an old cave. It’s probably camped out there. Narco take Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ren, sweep wide around the ridge and try to get behind the cave. I’ll take team RWBY and go up the middle. We’ll surround it and level it with superior fire power.

                They split up weapons at the ready, advancing on their prey. Narco and the members of team JNPR over the ridge around the back of the cave while Matt and team RWBY snuck towards the cave. Narco’s group reached the cave looking through the bushes looking at the cave. “It looks pretty deep. They must be further in,” Jaune said. “Now we get it,” Ren said about to move when Narco put his hand on his shoulder holding him back. “We need to think smart. Rushing is how we get caught,” Narco said when there was a sound of cracking twigs behind them.

                Over with Matt and team RWBY they heard a shrill scream. Matt in the girls perked up realizing what it was. “Jaune,” they all said as they ran towards the sound. They found Jaune curled up in a ball still screaming. “Jaune,” Ruby said dropping to her knees next to him. “Jaune!” she said shaking him but he didn’t stop. “We don’t have time for this,” Matt said putting his hand on Jaune shoulder and gave him a few volts shocking Jaune unconscious. “What was that for?” Ruby asked. “He’s giving away our position. Then they heard a growling and turned to see the beast behind them drooling ferociously. The girls screamed and ran Ruby dashing away, Weiss propelling herself away with a glyph, Blake using a shadow clone to avoid it, and Yang grabbed Jaune firing off a shotgun blast propelling them away. The creature slashed down as they escaped and Matt deflected the claw against Storm Reaper and into the ground before spinning around slashing the creature across the chest. Howling in pain the creature took is free paw and punched at Matt but he blocked it against the face of his sword but was sent skidding back as he stabbed his blade into the ground to slow himself.

                “Yang, Weiss, give it a fire rain!” Matt said. Quickly responding to Matt’s order Weiss drew a glyph on the ground and Yang switched out her shotgun rounds for long range ones as she jumped on it sending her flying up over the creature and then let loose a barrage of shots down on the creature. “Weiss bounce charge!” Matt ordered. Weiss drew three glyphs for herself and for Ruby and Blake behind them. The three jumped back onto the glyphs bouncing off and flying at the creature. Ruby struck first slashing at the creature as it blocked the blade against its claws as Ruby flipped herself over the top of it and fired into its back causing it to stumble forward as Weiss followed up stabbing at it only to bounce around off several glyphs delivering several more strikes. As Weiss made her last strike, Blake flew up striking with her katana before bouncing back with a shadow clone. The beast slashed at her and she blocked it against her cleaver scabbard before leaving a shadow clone to dodge when she felt she could block the full force of the strike. She reappeared on top of the claw slashing at the arm only for the blade to not leave a scratch so she ran up the arm and slashed at the nape of its neck. The creature flipped its head back trying to protect its neck only to see Matt materializing out of lightning with his scythe against the moon. He used a glyph to propel himself at the creature. “Take this you…” he was about to strike when in a flash the creature grabbed him right out of the air with its claw.

                The girls watched in horror as Matt struggled to breath. The creature squeezed and they watched as red began to spread through his jacket. Matt’s grip on his scythe loosened and it fell from his hand sticking into the ground and Matt coughed up blood. Matt struggled to turn his head towards the girls. He struggled to exhale as he said, “run.” The creature squeezed again and Matt screamed. The girls cowered together holding each other in terror. Then the creature got in their face and roared at them showing them its huge teeth and mouth and put Matt in. It bit down and they saw the teeth go through him and Matt coughed up more blood screaming. Team RWBY screamed in terror like little girls.

                Then Matt’s screams of pain turned to laughter. They looked up to Matt in the creature’s mouth with his limbs hanging limp as he just laughed and the beast appearing to chuckle deeply along with him. The girls were dumbstruck. “Please, please, oh for the love of dust please, tell me we got the screaming on film,” Matt said through his laughter. “Every blood curdling sound,” They heard Ringo say. The girls looked up to see Ringo hanging upside down from a vine by her ankle that was lowering her down and a camera in hand aimed at them. “I think we got enough. We don’t need a reshoot,” Ringo said as she flipped herself over putting her feet on the ground. “Reshoot? Film?” Blake asked being the first to respond. “What the dust is going on?!” Ruby demanded. “More importantly, how are you not dead? You got half a dozen teeth going through you,” Weiss asked. Matt calmed down his laughing. He patted the creature on the snout telling it, “alright big guy you’re slobbering all over me.” The creature reached up with its paw taking Matt out of its mouth and seating him on its shoulder. Now the girls could still see teeth sticking out of his body. Matt gripped on of the teeth sticking out of his stomach and pulled it off. However it wasn’t going all the way through, it was two pieces stuck on either side of his body. “They’re fake, light weight props made of paper mache and attached with dermal adhesive,” Matt said as he tossed it away. “But you’re covered in blood, how are you conscious,” Yang asked. Matt took off his jacket holding up the blood stained article. “Going to be murder on the dry cleaning, good thing I have ten more,” Matt said throwing the jacket away. “Corn syrup and red food coloring and…” Matt reached into his mouth and pulled out a small plastic capsule. “A plastic capsule of the stuff hidden in the back jaw, pop it into you jaw and crack it when you want, it mixes with you natural saliva to increase volume, and your coughing up blood,” Matt said as he spat some of the fake blood on the ground. “Yah but it’s a little too sweet for me,” the creature said in a deep voice before it spat out some of the fake blood.

                “IT CAN TALK?!” the four girls yelled. “Of course he can talk,” Ringo said. “Wait if Ringo’s fine what about the others. “They’re fine,” they heard from the bushes and looked to see Narco, Lulu, and the other members of team JNPR behind them. Lulu walked over to Jaune and yelled, “On your feet maggot!” like a drill sergeant. Jaune responded immediately popping to his feet at attention saying, “Yes mam!” “Would someone explain what’s going on?” Ruby asked. “You’ve all been unknowing actors in our little movie,” Ringo said. “Movie?” Ruby asked. “The annual Vale Film Festival is coming up. Every year team MRLN enters and I refuse to lose to that dang Mickey Film for the ninth time in a row,” Matt said shaking his fist. “Wait this whole thing with the monster was fake?!” Weiss asked is frustration. “Pretty much,” Narco said. “Matt wanted real killer instinct and fear in the characters’ eyes,” Lulu added. “And the best way to get real emotion is let you think it was real,” Matt added. “You’re kidding, so the agents?” Yang asked. Matt pointed behind them and they saw the two agents leaning against a tree. “The creature attacking the night club?” Ruby asked. They heard the sound of a DJ scratch coming from above them and they looked up to see Zuri Argent sitting in a tree with her mix deck. “The White Fang?” Blake asked. “Actually that real, we just ran with it,” Matt said.

                “Wait so what happened to team JNPR when we thought they were taken?” Weiss asked. “Knock out spores,” Ringo said tossing a few seeds in her hand. “Fast acting, nearly invisible, drop a few at their feet, accelerate with my semblance and they’re out cold in a few seconds.” “What about Jaune’s screaming fit?” Blake asked. “Oh right. Mel you want to fix him?” Matt asked pointing towards the still shaking Jaune. “Right,” Agent Black said. She snapped her fingers and Jaune stopped shaking. “What the heck just happened?” Nora asked.

                Matt jumped off the creatures shoulder sliding down its mechanical arm and jumped to the ground. “I suppose proper introductions are in order,” Matt said. Zuri jumped down from the tree with the agents and the creature. “Meet team MMAL (Mail),” Matt said. “Dust Matt how many huntsmen owe you favors?” Weiss asked. “Pretty much all of them,” Matt said. He stepped between the two agents draping his arms over their shoulders swiping their sunglasses revealing their matching bright green eyes. “These are the twins Murk and Melinda Sable,” Matt said as he tightened his lock on their necks. “Come on Matt cut it out,” Melinda whined. “Yeah Matt you’re completely ruining my cool,” Murk added as the two weaseled their way out of Matt’s grip. “Obviously two very different people without the glasses but trust me they’re some of the best intelligence collectors in Remnant. Cold, calculated, serious down to business types with the glasses on but take them off and they’re a flirt and a party girl,” Matt said. He moved to Zuri. “You’ve already met Zuri unofficially,” Matt said. “Yo,” she said resting her mix deck on the ground leaning on it. “She’s a genius sound engineer. Every little sound you heard, twigs cracking, leaves rustling, every sound that kept you on your toes was her bouncing sounds. She was also responsible for every scream and distant gunshot,” Matt said. Zuri hit a key on the keyboard of her mix deck and they heard a gunshot in the distance. Finally, Matt moved to the creature, “And then of course we have the star of our film…” Then it occurred to Matt the creature was a big wolf. “Loose the fur Freddy,” Matt said. “Right,” the creature said.

                Suddenly a swirling vortex of red and black erupted around it rising from the ground up over its head. The vortex came back down and the creature was gone and only a young man stood there. He had black hair with wolf ears and a wolf tail and red eyes. He had the same claw as the creature but with the paneling closed hiding the glowing red components and compacted parts to scale it down to human size. He wore a red jacket with black detail black fur collar with yellow eye detail on the chest identical to the design of the vest the creature wore and left sleeve is cut to the elbow. He wore blue jeans with brown leather pads on the knees and a brown leather belt, a black fingerless glove on his right hand, and a brown leather spaulder on his right shoulder held on by a brown strap across the chest that also held on a mechanical backpack, and brown boots. He clicked his claw and it began to compact itself flipping the palm flat against the end of the forearm and retracting the claws onto the sides of it. He held his arm behind his back hooking the claw to the bottom of the backpack extracting his hand from the forearm revealing a normal mechanical arm, it was sculpted like a normal human arm wrapped in sectional metal plating. “It’s human?” Weiss asked. “Faunus actually,” Matt said. “This is Freddy Luger,” Matt said scratching behind his wolf ears and Freddy’s foot started to shake. However, when Freddy noticed he was doing this he slid out of Matt’s reach saying, “Don’t do that.” “Wait so how was he that thing?” Weiss asked. “His semblance is a lot like Yang’s, it’s called feed the fear. He builds up energy with every hit he takes till he hits a boiling point and then he gets all furry. Or he can just voluntarily cut his aura in half and change instantly. With the fur he’s stronger, faster, far more ferocious and he makes one heck of a movie monster,” Matt said.

                “So you called in some of your valuable favors for a film?” Blake asked. “Blood is thicker than favors actually,” Matt said. “Blood, you mean…” Yang started. “They’re all my younger siblings,” Matt said. The girls rolled their eyes. “How many siblings do you have?!” Weiss said. “Even I don’t know,” Matt said. “The whole team are half siblings? How the heck did they end up together?” Blake asked. “Yeah that’s kind of hard to believe,” Weiss added. “Well believe it. We have no Idea how but they did,” Matt said.

                The girls of team RWBY slumped back against a tree sliding down to a seated position. “This is too much,” Blake said. “Yeah first you have us thinking Vale is being threatened by some monster now you tell us you set this whole thing up as part of a movie and everyone was in on it but us,” Ruby said. “You, team JNPR, and the Haven boys,” Matt said.

                Suddenly Freddy’s wolf ears perked up and he sniffed the air. “We have a problem. Then Ringo’s squirrel ears twitched as did Blake’s under her bow. “He’s right, a pack of Grimm about a quarter mile south,” Ringo said. “A pack of Beowolves and a few of something bigger,” Freddy said. “Great, after all this I need to punch something,” Yang said cracking her knuckles. “Bad idea,” Matt said. “But why?” Yang asked. “Feel your weapons,” Matt said. The members of teams RWBY and JNPR felt their weapons to find the materials to be soft and spongy. “What the heck?” Nora asked before she tapped her head with the hammer doing no damage. “Foam rubber, we wanted killer instinct when you fought with Freddy but we didn’t want you killing him for real so we switched out you weapons for foam rubber replicas loaded with inert chalk rounds so if you got in a lucky shot you wouldn’t hurt him badly,” Matt said.

                “How did you even switch our weapons? They were made of metal when we left,” Yang asked. “Right in front of your eyes actually, you just don’t remember,” Melinda said. The students were puzzled. “Melinda’s semblance allows her to block out memories. Every time one of you found out what was happening she just blocked it out,” Matt said. “It’s also how we got Jaune into that state of fear earlier. I blocked out all of his memories except for those of extreme fear,” Melinda said. Melinda snapped her fingers and the students had to steady themselves as the memories Melinda had blocked out flooded back in. “Wow, that’s disconcerting,” Weiss said.

“I thought the twins had the same semblance,” Weiss said. “Yeah didn’t we see them both make those projections earlier?” Jaune asked. “Well not exactly. You know how some siblings are said to be so close they’re attached at the hip? Well for these two it was quiet literal. They were born connected at the hip,” Matt said. “Not a lot is known about how aura develops in the early stages of life but apparently with our bodies physically connected, our aura’s fused before it was split back in two after our birth. We can both use both semblances and we can transfer aura between each other,” Murk said.  

                “Matt they’re coming this way,” Freddy said. “Dang, we must have scared you too well. The Grimm are coming,” Matt said. “and our weapons are duds, just great,” Yang said. “It’s only a small pack of Beowolves and sounds like three Beringals,” Freddy said closing his eyes to focus on the sound. “Oh that’s nothing. Take the kids and let us take care of the Grimm,” Murk said. “What the heck I can use the exercise,” Zuri said picking up her mix deck. “Alright, I’ve been dying to actually get a chance to actually sink my teeth into a fight,” Freddy said cracking his knuckles as he smiled baring his sharp canines. He reached behind his back under his stored claw with his right hand pulling out a weapon modeled off a sawed off version of a MTs-225 revolver shotgun with a lever action. Freddy clicked a release on the gun opening its center break and it automatically ejected five spent twelve gauge shells. He clicked his wrist and a compartment on his mechanical arm opened near his wrist popping out five fresh shells in a pentagon. He threaded the shells into the ammo drum taking away his arm leaving them and flipped the gun closed before doing a lever action spin reload ending with it pointed out. “I’ve been dying to sink Fear Monger here into something,” he said. He clicked it again and the handle twisted straight extending a hooked axe head unpacked under the barrel. “Matt wouldn’t let me go all out on you guys so I only got to use by claw and gravity dust pulses. You really want a monster, you should see me go all out,” Freddy said slinging the axe over his shoulder. “Let’s fall back to the Bullhead,” Matt said.

                They fell back to the Bullhead when Freddy’s ears perked up again. “Here they come,” he said. Team MMAL lined up between the students and faculty of Beacon. Freddy fed his left hand into the claw pulling it off unpacking the claws as the center of the palm began to glow red. Murk clicked his briefcase converting it to its sword and scabbard mode while Melinda unpacked hers into its sniper rifle form, and Zuri converted her mix deck to its railgun form charging the magnetic accelerators. Murk and Melinda took out their sun glasses putting them on even though it was the dead of night. “Let’s do this,” Murk said as the pack of Beowolves broke through the tree line.

                Melinda dropped to a seated position tucking her leg under the other while resting her rifle on the other taking aim and opening fire. Zuri took aim at a group of Beowolves and pulled the trigger sending a shot flying through one Beowolf out the other side and struck another behind it. Murk ran towards his first Beowolf. He dropped low and slid between its legs slashing one so it fell over before jumping on its back stabbing it through the back. From their he let loose four copies of himself forward and another behind him. The forward four slashed through a group of Beowolves disabling them, before Murk kicked off from the last copy slashing through all four in one movement followed by striking a fifth with his scabbard causing it to step right into Melinda’s line of sight. She fired sending a shot right between its eyes. Just then a Beowolf leapt at her but she was too fast. She converted her rifle to its spear form sticking its but in the ground and it extended rocketing forward into the monster’s throat as she drew her handgun and shooting another. She pulled the spear loose reangling it and uses its extension to rocket herself forward stabbing its point into another Beowolf before jumping off the shaft over it and shooting another one followed by a copy of her threw her spear into another Grimm. She grabbed the weapon out of the dying creature and started spinning it around her body slashing up another group of Grimm.

                As Melinda spun she missed one Beowolf which tried to counter attack only to have one of Zuri’s skate wheels slash into its head. The wheel reeled back in as she landed grabbing up her railgun and fired several shots before converting it to its mix deck form. She immediately started scratching. Beowolves started to swarm her but as they tried to attack her they found themselves slamming into light shields or being blasted by colorful beams of light from glowing orbs floating around her. Once the Grimm gave her a second’s reprieve, she converted her mix deck to its sword form. She dashed about slashing Grimm before stabbing the end into the ground. She flipped herself up on the handle and started spinning on her hands letting her skate wheels out slashing through more Grimm around her.

                Freddy was a beast in a fight. He charged at a Beowolf with his claws held close together in a point and stabbed it through one coming out of the far side flaring the blades. While still stuck in the disintegrating beast he swung his other arm with hi axe beheading another Grimm, and with the other Grimm now gone freeing his claw, used the momentum of the axe swing to slash another Beowolf into pieces. Keeping his momentum, he threw back his mechanical elbow back and his claw rearticulated sliding back the claws charging dust into the palm pointing it towards a group of Beowolves and unleashed a powerful blast. He cocked his elbow back and a set of vents opened discharging hot air, before transforming it back to the normal claw to catch the claw of another Beowolf. He flipped his shotgun around the lever converting it to its shotgun form putting a shell in the Beowolf’s chest before spin loading it, blasting another over his shoulder, and repeating to blast one in front of him.

                “Dust, Freddy really is a beast,” Yang said. Just then they saw the trees rustling and the three Beringals broke through the tree line. “Uh-oh,” Ruby said. “Let’s finish this,” Murk said. Zuri took her sword slashing it into the ground sending out walls of burning neon light separating the gorilla Grimm. The twins took one, Zuri another, and Freddy the last. Zuri skated around the Beringal. It took a punch at her which she blocked against the face of her blade but it caused her to skid back a bit. She stabbed the blade into the ground stopping herself before swinging herself around it to whip out her wheels slashing across its chest before reeling back in followed by propping herself up on her hands on the handle delivering a flurry of kicks firing a barrage of SMG shots at it. The Grimm blocked the bullets against one of its arms as it charged at her taking a swing at her when it got close enough. However, Zuri was too quick. She swung herself to the side avoiding the punch while dislodging her blade converting it to its railgun form. She swung the barrel around slamming it into the gorilla Grimm’s ribs and fired sending the Grimm flying, while using the recoil to throw it back onto her back and kicked off on her skates. She reached down grabbing her the SMGs pulling them off into their handheld form. She started firing on the monster as she approached. She slid between its legs before spinning around whipping out some of her wheels which stuck into the Beringal’s arm and started circling wrapping it up in the cables. She pulled the cord taught and the Beringal fell over. She acted fast and jumped on it putting her guns to its eye sockets and fired. The beast cried out and snapped its bounds throwing her off. She ejected the wheels from her other skate. She whipped her mix deck around and started scratching causing balls of light to form. The monster charged towards her when she scratched to final sound and the balls of light erupted beams of neon light leaving holes the size of softballs in the creature. It skidded to a halt, dropped to its knees, and disintegrated.

                The Twins moved just as fast on their Beringal working in perfect harmony, moving in on a pincer movement. Melinda slashed with her spear which the creature blocked against its arm only for Murk to strike from other side with a flurry of slashes before converting to its shotgun form blasting it using the recoil to pop back. The Grimm turned taking swings at him, the first of which he deflected against his scabbard before dodging the next flipping onto the arm delivering a powerful slash joined by several additional projections of his sword wielding arm. The creature reeled back getting its footing only for Melinda spinning her spear around her body repeatedly slashed its back joined by additional projections. Then while the but end was facing the beast she pulled her rifle trigger firing a shot into the Beringal’s back and the recoil forced the end into the ground and swing like a pendulum back. She then pulled the end out of the ground and unleashed a barrage of stabs but the creature swiped Murk away and turned to face its hard bone armor on its chest that the spear bounced right of off. “This isn’t working,” Melinda said jumping to her brother to help him up. The two’s coordination of switching out was impeccable but its wasn’t getting anywhere.

                “AP maneuver three,” Murk said converting to his shotgun. Melinda moved first running at the Beringel. At first it looked like she was going to stab it but instead she dropped down sliding on her back pointing up her spear and pulled the extension trigger and along with several projections copies it erupted forward causing the beast to be launched back landing on its back. Murk followed up quacking as the creature tried to get up. As it got to its paws Murk got in close putting the barrels of his gun right against the beast’s chest pumping the primer three times charging all three barrels and fired blowing the ape Grimm back and shattering its chest armor. Murk jumped away as Melinda extended her spear stabbing the Grimm through the chest making it fly further as Murk used projections to jump higher, before using another to propel himself towards the beast delivering the final slash slaying it as he landed next to his sister.

                Freddy was busy with his own beast. The Beringal punched at him and Freddy caught the fist in his claw hooking his axe on the its shoulder for leverage and flipped himself around the other arm delivering a knee to its chin while twisting the Grimm’s wrist so far as to cause it pain. As soon as his feet hit the ground though the Grimm punched him clear in the chest sending him flying and dropping his axe Fear Monger. As he bounced against the ground he managed to dig his claw into the ground stopping himself and stumbled to his feet. “I think Freddy’s in trouble,” Ruby said. “No, this is where he shines. You’re about to see the kind of Fight that earned him the moniker the Beast of Beacon,” Matt said.

                Freddy started breathing hard which turned to dog like panting and his eyes turned bestial. He slammed the palm of his claw onto the ground as a vortex of red and black erupted around him rising well above his height before dissipating revealing his werewolf form. He clicked his claw and the and its sections opened revealing the glowing interior. The ape Grimm ran towards punching at him. Freddy caught the fist in his claw and with little effort twisted its wrist slamming it into the ground before whipping the whole creature around throwing it into a tree. The Beringal recovered fast and they charged each other. He grabbed up his lost axe on the way. He was going to end this fast. The Grimm took a swing at him, but he used a pulse from his claw to launch himself over the creature. He delivered a shot of his shot to its head before landing behind it. He spin cocked the gun as the Beringal spun to strike again and shot the fist to deflect it causing the ape Grimm to spin around so its back was to him. He drew back his claw locking the blades forward with the palm charged full of fire dust, and thrusted home, the piston launching forward for added force. The flaming claw burst through the Beringal’s chest opening the menacing claw and the beast disintegrated. He pulled back and howled at the moon.

                “That was amazing,” Ruby said. “And the best part,” Matt started. He waved his hand and his talons with cameras strapped to them. “We got it all on film.” “So now what?” Blake asked. “The film festival is in two weeks, and we still need a few scenes. I got to get to work,” he said. “Can we help?” Ruby asked. Matt looked at the students by the looks on their faces, they were all in.

 

* * *

 

 

                About a week later teams RWBY, JNPR, MRLN, and MMAL sat in a theater at the Vale Film Festival. On the screen was their film. The beast of Beacon lay bloody and dying on the ground with a bruised and battle worn Ruby standing over hit with her scythe. Scattered around lay the bodies of her fallen comrades. “This is for my friends,” Ruby said. The camera zoomed in on her face as she slashed across the beast and blood sprayed on her face. She looked to the sky screaming to the universe as the camera panned up onto the moon before fading to black. The crowd cheered and applauded as the credits started.

                The crowd subsided as the host stepped out onto the stage saying, “And that was our second finalist The Beast of Beacon Made by Matt Vert.” Matt stepped up onto the stage waving as the crowd clapped. “And off course the director of our other finalist Forever Fall Nights, Miss Film,” the host said as the other director stepped onto the stage. She had a black bob haircut with mouse Faunus ears under a black beret. She wore a white collared shirt, red cravat, red skirt, black cargo vest, red shorts, yellow belt, black tights with yellow boots, white gloves, and carried black swagger stick with a gold end. She shook hands with Matt and they appeared to be friendly but behind their eyes they wanted to stab each other.

                “Our judges have been deliberating the merits of each film. Ms. Film’s charming love story, and Professor Vert’s suspenseful horror film,” the host said as an aid handed him an envelope. “The votes are in, and the winner is…” The host opened the envelope pulling out a card. “The Beast of Beacon!” The crowd broken into applause as the host handed mat the trophy. “Thank you, thank you,” Matt said taking the microphone. “Of course, I couldn’t have done this without my crew and actors, even if the actors didn’t know they were in a movie half of it,” he said. The crowd laughed. “No, I’m serious, half of them really thought it was all real for half of the filming,” he said making light of it. “But anyway, this has been a long time coming and I couldn’t have done this without my crew, guys get up here,” he said urging them to join him on stage taking a bow.

                After the awards ended the returned to the Hunter’s Den at Beacon to celebrate. “To Victory, and future victories to come,” Matt said raising a glass. “Here, here!” everyone called out in agreement. As they celebrated they heard the door open and Mickey Film walked in. Every went silent. “Glad you could make it Mickey,” Matt said handing her a drink. He looked to see the stares of the students. “Matt, you invited your enemy?” Weiss asked. “There’s a difference between an enemy and a healthy rivalry. On this campus, every huntsman and huntress is welcome,” he said. “She’s a huntress?” Yang asked. Mickey reached behind her back pulling out what looked like an old film camera with two film wheel drums on top and a tripod extended. She clicked the camera and it transformed flipping the film wheels flipped to the sides and it became a mallet and then transformed again into a Lewis Gun style machine gun. “Take a load off, Razor another round,” Matt said.


	18. Ruby Roo Where Are You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an all night horror movie marathon, team RWBY find themselves in their own real life horror movie.

 

                It was a quiet Saturday night at Beacon Academy and the members of teams RWBY, JNPR, and MRLN were in Matt Vert’s room with a horror movie marathon. Everyone was dressed in their sleepwear on either the ground or on the couches in Matt’s room watching his big screen, some of the wrapped in blankets or pillows with popcorn and drinks. Everyone reacted differently to the movie. Yang, Ruby, Nora would gasp and then lightly laugh off every surprise. Weiss and Ringo where flinching at every ghost and ghoul that jumped out. Ringo was hiding her eyes behind her tail grasping Matt’s arm close. Matt, Lulu, and Ren were entirely unfazed by anything the just sat their snacking, Matt with Ringo clinging to him like a security blanket, and Nora sitting against Ren. Jaune was cowering behind the couch scared of the film with Pyrrha trying to calm him, and Narco and Blake had fallen asleep on the floor. Zwei and Matt’s dogs had fallen asleep on the dog beds by the window.

                “Nothing like a good scare flick Matt said softly as the film ended. He looked to the clock and saw it was after three in the morning. With the room now dark form the movie ending the hour struck everyone and they all started getting drowsy. “All right boys and girls time to call it a night,” he said. He moved his foot lightly kicking Narco and he woke with a snort. “Pack it in guys. I need some sleep,” Matt said. “Too tired,” Ruby grumbled as she started to curl up. “Oh no you don’t Rosebud. What would people say if they found out a bunch of students spent the night in a teacher’s apartment. Come on your feet. Ringo, you want to make sure they make it back to their own beds?” Matt said. Ringo came up behind him draping her arms over his shoulders for support resting her chin lazily on his shoulder saying, “To tired. Besides I thought I was going to just find my way upstairs tonight.” Matt lightly tapped her head to his saying, “Not tonight, come on out with you.” “Carry me,” Ringo said. “Ringo,” he said assertively, not interested in her half-asleep flirting. “Your no fun,” she said getting off him. “Come on kids lets go,” Ringo said. Ruby picked up the sleeping Zwei and brought him along.

                As they walked back to the rooms, team JNPR stopped by the restrooms while the others went on ahead. The halls were dark this time of night. Everyone was sound asleep and the hall lights were out. Only the light of their scrolls showed them the way. “That last movie was a pretty good one. Especially when the monster jumps out to get’em,” Yang said grabbing Weiss’s shoulders scaring her. “Yang! Don’t do that!” the heiress said in annoyance. “Still a little unsettled by the movies? Don’t worry just think about other thing, it helps,” Ringo said.

                Suddenly they heard a sound. They all froze and turn looking into the darkness. “What… What was that?”  Ruby asked stuttering. “Somebody in their room probably turning over in bed, knocked something off their night stand,” Wiess said shakily. There was another noise spooking them. “Come on girls it’s just the sounds of an old building,” Yang said confidently. There was another noise. It sounded like a wailing of a banshee. This time even Yang was spooked. “Ok maybe we should get back to the room,” she said and the girls started walking quicker. More spooky sound came and with each one the girls sped up slightly until they walk clear into a wall. “Ow,” Yang said. “What are we doing? Getting scared by little noises,” Ringo said to the girls. “I mean we huntresses, we’re not push overs. I mean if we got scared of every little bump in the night, we’d be a laughing stock. And another thing…” She stopped talking when she noticed the girls weren’t paying attention. They were looking at something behind her. She turned around to see a pale glowing figure with black eyes. “Ghost,” she said flatly. “GHOST!” they all screamed and took off down the hall.

                They barreled down the halls screaming right back into Matt’s apartment. They ran straight up the spiral staircase into the loft where Matt had already fallen asleep. Team RWBY dove over the bed hiding while Ringo dove straight onto Matt knocking the wind out of him before scurrying under his comforter to hide. Matt bolted upright from the impact and tried to get his bearings. He lifted to find Ringo cowering. “Ringo, I said not tonight,” he said. She popped her head out crying out, “GHOST!” before ducking back under. Matt to see team RWBY cowering on the side of his bed. He reached over grabbing his glasses from the nightstand. “Action movies, I wanted to have an action movie marathon, lots of fights and heroes doing the slow walk away from a fiery explosion. But nooo, they wanted a horror movie marathon, and now they’re seeing things,” he said rubbing his temple. He pressed a hidden switch in the side of his bed and a compartment with one of his revolver knives popped out. “Come on, let’s get this over with,” he said rolling out of bed.

                Matt walked down the stairs, the girls following behind him. He raised his hand and a glyph formed sparking electricity along it giving him some light. “Girls there’s nothing to be afraid of,” he said. Just then three ghosts phased through the floor wailing at them and charged at Matt. He took a shot at them, but the bullet went straight through. He jumped back at of the way towards the couch. He kicked it and the whole piece of furniture opened up revealing a full copy of his arsenal in it. He whipped out the talons swarming the ghosts to no effect and grabbed a copy of his sword Storm Reaper and a belt with drop leg holsters. “Run!” he said as he swung the belt on and all the straps locked themselves on and his machine pistols flew off the rack into their holsters.

                The RWBY girls and Ringo barreled out of Matt’s Apartment followed by Matt who was still shooting at the ghosts. They barreled out of the dorm building into the court yard and lost the ghost. “What the dust is going on?!” Blake asked catching her breath. “I have no idea but I hope this is all just a nightmare. Maybe I just fell asleep during the movies and I’m still in Matt’s apartment,” Weiss said trying to steady herself. Then suddenly the ground beneath her feet gave out and she fell into the ground. “What the dust?” Yang asked as they all looked into the hole and as the dust settled to find Weiss covered in dust. “Ringo, I think one of your tunnels gave out,” Ruby said. Wiess formed a glyph and used it to bounce out of the hole before saying, “Ringo I thought your tunnels were stable.” “They are, this isn’t one of mine. My tunnels have roots and plants holding them together. This tunnel is way too smooth not to mention shallow. All my tunnels are at least six feet down, this one is barely a foot and a half,” Ringo said defending her skills at tunneling. “Wait, smooth shallow tunnels?” Matt asked rhetorically, as if that meant something to him.  

                Matt’s face turned to one of annoyance. “Ringo, you got any of your fireball seeds?” he asked. “Um, hang on,” she said and jumped into a tree, returning with a pouch of seeds. “Why were those there?” Blake asked. “I hide weapons all over campus, Ringo hides seeds,” Matt said. He nodded to the hole and Ringo tossed I the seeds. With a wave of her hand the seeds grew into large glowing red bulbs full of fire dust. “All right I know you’re in there. I’m giving you to the count of three to surface before I burn you out,” Matt yelled into the tunnel. “Three!” Matt charged a lighting glyph in his hand. “Two!” He took aim. “One!” “Wait!” came a voice from the tunnel. Matt lowered his hand. “Alright get out of their Gilford,” he yelled. They heard a cracking in the ground next to them and the side walk collapsed in. The dust cleared and a young man climbed out. He had brown hair, under a gold hardhat with a light, wore a gold shirt, blue overalls, brown boots, a grey jacket with gold detail and he was covered in dust. “Why do you always have to threaten to burn me out?” the stranger asked. “Because it’s the only way to get you above ground,” Matt said rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Now where are the other three?”

                The miner whistled, “Guys we’re busted!” “Ugh, finally. I told you this wasn’t going to be worth it,” another voice said. They all looked over to see another young man on a phone step out of the shadows behind a tree tapping on his scroll and plopped himself down on a bench. He had Grey hair and wore a grey bomber jacket with brown pants, black boots, a red bandana tied on his upper arm, a silver spaulder, silver hip armor, a silver chest plate, and a silver forearm guard on right arm.

                “ _And_ the girls,” Matt said crossing his arms. “Come on prof. You know it’s impossible to keep track of those two,” the guy on the phone said. He raised his scroll and clicked a quick picture. “Right,” Matt huffed. He closed his eyes focusing on his other senses. He listened closely when he heard a slight crack. He drew one of his SMGs and fired at the sound. “Owe!” they heard from the bushes along with a buzz of electricity from Matt’s lightning dust rounds, and a young woman stepped out, still buzzing from the shock. She had black hair in a long ponytail tied with a purple bow. She wore a purple and black midriff tank top, black and purple forearm guards, a light weight black spaulder on one side and black arm sleeve, black shorts with a purple sash hanging off he purple belt, Purple stockings, black calf high toeless shoes with purple detail, a purple scarf with two long ends trailing behind her with black ends, and had a small bag on back hip.

                “Matt who are these people?” Blake asked. “Former students that get a kick out of scaring Haunting the school every time they visit,” he said. “More like one of us wants to and the other three get dragged into it,” said the man in grey. “Matt what’s going on?!” Yang demanded. “Girls, meet team GRVS (graves). “This is Gilford Mine,” Matt said gesturing to the miner from the tunnel. “Coil Rhodium,” gesturing to the man on his scroll. “Violet Bloom,” gesturing to the young ninja. “Wait, where’s Sienna?” Matt asked cautiously.

                Then suddenly a disturbed figure leaped out of the bushes wearing a disturbing hockey mask like a serial killer out of a movie waving a chainsaw over their head. The members of team RWBY screamed in terror. “Oh, for the love of,” Matt complained as he drew one of his Seraphs and shot the figure with a lightning dust round shocking them. The figure dropped the chainsaw which stabbed into the ground as they seized on the ground and Coil snapped a picture. When the figure stopped seizing they popped to their feet saying with a female voice, “Dust Matt, you can’t let me have a little fun?”

                She flipped her mask up onto her head and the RWBY girls got a good look at her. Her hair was black with orange cords tied into the base of her short ponytail. She wore a skeleton t-shirt under a half zipped black hoodie with orange interior and the sleeves torn off, an ammo belt hanging over her shoulder across her chest, a black skirt, black stockings with skeleton leg bone designs, black fingerless gloves up past her elbows with bone designs on them, and orange sneakers. “This is Sienna Scare, second best prankster in Beacon history. After me of course,” Matt said. “That’s still in debate,” Sienna said.

                Matt slapped his forehead asking, “What are you crackpots doing here?” “What? Can’t a group of students drop in on an old professor and try to scare the dust out of them?” Sienna asked. “Matt are any of your old students, oh I don’t know, sane?” Weiss asked. “What have I told you before? Eccentrics make the best huntsmen and huntresses,” Matt said. Suddenly they heard a sound behind them. Everyone looked to see what looked like zombies walking towards them. “Ok Sienna very funny. Turn off your semblance. That’s enough with the scary illusions,” Matt said. “Uh Matt, this isn’t me,” Sienna said. “Oh, come on who else could make fake zombies?” he asked. He went to wave his hand though one of the illusions only to find it solid. “Ah, a real zombie,” he said calmly. He turned to the others and yelled, “Zombies!” He whipped out his scythe and slashed through the zombie as he jumped back.

                Team GRVS acted fast drawing their weapons. Gil pulled a grenade launcher pickaxe based on the China Lake grenade launcher. Coil reached behind his back drawing a shotgun sword and a gauntlet locked onto his left hand with a shield. Violet drew a pair of kama blade pistols linked together by a long chain. Sienna pulled out her chainsaw machine gun again, pulling the rip cord firing up the saw. “Uh Matt, five of us are unarmed,” Weiss mentioned. “Right, Ringo get us a tunnel,” Matt said aiming his rifle. Matt and team GRVS opened fire on the zombies. They started dropping one by one but for everyone they took down, three more popped up. “Ringo hole!” Matt said. Ringo opened a hole into her tunnels and they all jumped in sealing the tunnel behind them cutting off all light.

                “Well this is better?” Blake said sarcastically. “Give me a sec,” Ringo said focusing her semblance and several plants along the ceiling started glowing bright enough to easily see. “So, what do we do know?” Ruby asked as they walked down the tunnel. “We get you back to your dorm room and you ignore this,” Matt said. “Wait what?” You’re kicking us out again?” Ruby gripped. “Ruby, this is an attack on the school. And its not the first time this has happened,” Matt said ending the conversation.

* * *

 

                The next evening team RWBY was in the courtyard looking over where they were attacked by the zombies the night before. Yang squatted down running her hand over the ground where one of the zombies had popped out of. All evidence of the hole had been erased. The soil was replaced appearing totally untouched and grass had grown back. “Ringo does quick work,” Yang said standing up dusting the soil form her hand. “Didn’t Matt say to forget about this?” Wiess asked. “Oh, come on, you’re not curious?” Yang asked. “Even the bullet strikes are missing,” Ruby noted looking at a tree where a bullet had hit, but the hole was missing, Ringo having grown the bark over the hole. Ruby was stumped, “It’s like they’re covering it up.” “Why would they do that?” Blake asked seated against a tree with a book. “That’s because they have been,” a voice said behind them and they turned to see it belong to Sienna Scare with the rest of team GRVS. “What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

                They all went to the Hunter’s Den and team GRVS explained. “It’s the worst kept secret amongst the Beacon student body and alumni, the Phantom of the Beacon Clocktower,” Sierra said. “The Phantom of the Beacon Clocktower?” Wiess asked skeptically. “It started our freshman year,” Coil said. “Students started seeing a shadowy figure running about the campus at night. Some thought it was Professor Ozpin because it carries a cane but that was quickly dismissed when it showed up when the professor was out of the kingdom.” “Eventually, ghost and zombie like creatures started showing up every few months. They cause chaos, chase students, scare the crapped out of each other but considering how slow they are and their lack of range, to a school for of trained warriors they’re harmless,” Violet added. “And every time these things show up, that shadowy figure is seen. Students have even tried following it but it always disappears somewhere around the old clocktower,” Gil finished.

                “Wait we have a clocktower?” Ruby asked. “Its over on the north edge of campus. About twenty years ago Beacon started expanding the campus. They started building a new dorm but construction was plagued with problems. Eventually they gave up and focused on the south campus expansion, leaving the mostly completed building. Its just a nonfunctional clocktower and a half-constructed building. The teachers have tried investigating but they just find and empty building. Now they just cover it up, keeping it away from the press. Luckily the students think its fun and ignore it,” Sienna finished.

                “So, there’s supposed to be a ghost hiding in an abandoned building on the outskirts of campus?” Blake asked. “This is absurd,” Weiss said. “So is an army of zombies,” Coil retorted. “Oh, come on, can any of that really be true?” Wiess asked. Sienna leaned in across the table eerily asking, “Want to find out?”

                The next thing they knew, teams RWBY and GRVS were standing outside the abandoned dorm. The sun was already setting casting an ominous shadow of the building on top of the approaching storm clouds. Coil just snapped a picture. “Well that’s creepy,” Ruby said. “Alright split up and start looking,” Gil said, “I’ll take Violet and Yang. Sienna take Coil and Blake. Ruby and Weiss, you’re on your own. Let’s start around the outside of the building.

                They split up and started looking around. The building screamed haunted. The cobblestone was falling apart as if the walls were ready to crumble. The windows were boarded up, scaffolding was left where it was, and weeds and ivy covered the building and area. The only thing that appeared in any decent shape was the clock face.  The arms didn’t move but its glass was un-cracked and clean. Ruby and Wiess were searching around near the back of the building. The walls were half crumbled away and they could see into the rooms.

                “Wow this place is a mess,” Ruby said as she almost tripped over a pile of rubble. “I don’t know, if it was completed it looks as if it would have been nice. Four-bedroom suites with two bathrooms, a kitchenet, and a living room space. It would have been far more comfortable than our room now,” Weiss said. “But the bunkbeds are fun,” Ruby said. “They are unstable. You or Yang roll over the wrong way in your sleep and Blake or I are pancakes,” Weiss retorted. Then they heard a crack. Both girls froze and then spun around fast just in time to catch the back edge of some shadowy figure disappear around the corner. “What was that?” Ruby asked. They ran around the corner to find nothing. “What was that?” Ruby asked hesitantly. “It looked like a tentacle,” Weiss answered. Then as they turned back around the corner, they found themselves staring at a grotesque creature of branches and plant matter standing a good two feet taller than them. Both girls screamed and Ruby jumped into Weiss’s arms before the heiress took off running, Ruby in her arms.

                After fleeing Weiss ran the two girls straight into Sienna, knocking Weiss down still holding Ruby. Startled, Sienna spun around drawing her chainsaw about to strike back. Weiss and Ruby screamed in fear. Luckily Sienna realized it was them before cutting them to pieces and lowered her weapon. Coil just snapped a picture of the ridiculous sight. “What happened to you girls?” Blake asked.  Weiss then realized she was holding Ruby and threw her off. “Sss-swamp monster!” Ruby yelled. “Swamp monster?” Blake asked skeptically. Then the creature turned the corner.

                The monster charged them punching at them. Coil acted fast putting himself between the creature and Ruby and Weiss deflecting the punch against its shield before pulling his sword to slash of the arm but it bounced off the wood. “Dust, Sienna chop it up,” he said. Sienna pulled her rip cord on her chainsaw. Coil clicked a switch on his shield and it opened into a two-prong claw latching onto the creature’s arm holding it down as Sienna chopped it off. The creature grabbed its open wound and fled as it saw Gil, Violet, and Yang running up. “What was that thing?” Violet asked. “I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out,” Sienna said.

                Suddenly a there was a flash of lightning immediately followed by thunder struck and it began to pour. Sienna swung her chainsaw cutting open one of the boarded-up doors. “Come on,” she said and they all filed into the abandoned building. “I can’t see anything,” Ruby said stumbling around in the dark. “Oh, hold on,” Gil said. They heard him fiddling around in his jacket and then a light went on, on his hard hat. “Never leave home without it,” he said. “Great but what about the rest of us?” Weiss asked. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a bunch of head lamps passing them out. “Well it looks like we aren’t getting out of here any time soon. Not unless we want pneumonia,” Violet said. “Well as long as we’re here, let’s look around,” Ruby said. “Fine, but this time let’s stay together incase that thing comes back,” Weiss said.  

                They all crept through the halls of the abandoned building. “Hey what’s this?” Yank asked squatting down to pick something up. She stood up holding a long zebra pattern feather. “What kind of bird did that come from?” Ruby asked. “I don’t think it did,” Blake said taking the feather for a better look. “This feather as been dyed to look like this,” she said. “I’d say this feather was meant to be part of some form of clothing or accessory.” “Guys,” Coil said. They looked down the hall to see Coil holding another zebra feather. “Guys shine your lights along the ground,” Violet said. She knelt to the ground examining it for disturbances. “Someone’s been through here recently. There’re subtle tracks in the dust,” she said. They followed the tracks upstairs until she stopped. “What’s wrong?” Gil asked. “This doesn’t make sense. The tracks just stop,” Violet said.  “Hmm, one thing about haunted buildings in movies, they always seem to have some secret passage,” Sienna said looking over the walls. “Hey, aren’t we under the clocktower?” Gil asked looking up. “Yeah, I think so, why?” Blake said. Gil pulled out his pickaxe nodding to the ceiling where they saw some sort of handle. He hooked the pick into the handle and pulled. A hatch opened and a ladder fell down and they all had to jump out of the way. “Well, onward and upward,” Coil said.

                They climbed the ladder and found themselves in the innerworkings of the clocktower. It was a large room with the interior of the clock faces took up the bulk of the four walls and the room was filled with complexly interconnected gears with bridges and stairs for getting around and repairing them. However, most of the bridges and stairs were damaged. “What now?” Yang asked. “Hey look,” Ruby said pointing towards the top of the room. Something was waving in what looked like a trapped door. Ruby jumped on one of the gears and started climbing followed by the others. Ruby reached the trapped door to find it stuck. “Hold on,” Violet said drawing one of her kamas converting it to its pistol form and shot the latch. They pushed the door open and climbed into a room.

                “What the dust is all this?” Weiss asked. They looked around to find some sort of bedroom lit by various candles. But what really drew their attention was a hate shrine full of pictures of Matt. “A hate shrine?” Ruby asked. “Some one hates Matt with a passion,” Weiss said. “Who could hate Matt? He’s great,” Ruby asked. “Not for everyone, look at how he treats Cardin and his goons,” Yang noted. “Yeah but they deserve it,” Ruby said. Coil was looking around the room and found several framed pictures that appeared to document the life of a girl. “Hey guys, does this girl look familiar?” he asked his team. “Yeah actually. Where have I seen this girl?” Violet asked. Coil pulled out his scroll and started flipping through his photo library, going back several years. “There,” he said turning the scroll to the others, pointing to someone in the background. It was definitely the same person. “That’s her. When was this taken?” Blake asked. “It was the interview day for new Beacon applicants about five years ago,” Coil said.

                “And I’ve cursed that day ever since,” a female voice said behind them. They all spun around to see the woman from the picture standing in front of the open trap door. She had dark skin with dark red hair wearing a monocle, a bent black top hat with purple band and small red and zebra print feather. And small gold ring earrings.

                Her outfit consisted of a purple button up blouse with flared sleeves under a black vest with gold buttons, a bone necklace with bird skull charm, a black and white striped tail coat, white gloves, a black pleated skirt with a snake skin belt, a white cravat around her neck under the necklace, white stockings with black pin stripes, black high heel ankle boots, and she carried a black cane with skull head handle.

                “This is my inner sanctum. BEGONE!” the stranger yelled. She waved her cane and several glyphs form that ghostly projections flew out of blowing them through the window. Luckily the rain had stopped. The members of teams RWBY and GRVS acted fast. Ruby used the recoil of Crescent Rose to slow her fall while Weiss jumped down on glyphs. Blake flung out her boomerang on her ribbon swinging down on it as Yang used shotgun blasts to slow down. Sienna pulled out her chainsaw firing it up and stabbing it into the wall to slow her down and grabbed Gilford’s hand catching him. Violet whipped out one of her kamas on its chains to hook onto something and swung down. Coil drew his sword and shield using a shotgun blast to force him closer to the angled roof of the building, and used his shield to slide down the roof before flying off and rebounded off a tree down to the ground.

                The Stranger stood in what was left of the blown-out window, cackling. “Who the dust is that?!” Ruby asked shaking the dust off. The stranger stopped her laughing before waving her cane. Several glyphs formed, and dozens of zombies and several swamp creatures forced their way out of the ground. “Wonderful, any ideas?” Gil asked Sienna sarcastically. “Let’s put the fear of dust into them,” she said with a devilish smirk. “Let’s do it,” he said. Sienna started swinging them and swung Gilford up onto a ledge next to them. He pulled out his grenade launcher pumping a new grenade into the chamber before opening the pickaxe picks. He then leaped from the ledge down towards the creatures pulling the launcher trigger when the pick hit the ground. The earth dust in the grenade ignited causing pillars of rock to erupt around him launching zombies and swamp creatures into the air.

                Following that Sienna swung herself up onto of her chainsaw pulling down her mask and pulled leveraging the chainsaw out of the wall, launching herself towards the airborne enemies and started hacking them to pieces. Then as her feet hit the ground, she spun around converting her chainsaw to its machinegun mode and opened fire on the zombie horde. “Looks like we’re doing this the fun way,” Coil said drawing his sword and shield. “You heard the guy,” Yang said unpacking Ember Celica. The other girls followed suit pulling out their weapons.

                The girls charged towards the horde, but Coil just sauntered towards them, letting the monsters come to him. As the first swamp monster reached him trying to smash him with its huge fist. Coil ducked effortlessly to the side spinning around pulling a trigger on his shield causing circular saw blades to fire up around the edge of the shield and he spun the edge into the arm cutting it off. He then followed through by cartwheeling over the severed arm, slashing its head off before spinning around and stabbing it in the chest and pulling the shotgun trigger blowing the beast apart. From there he turned toward a group of zombies a little way from him. He swung his shield arm and the round shield flew off his gauntlet. It slashed through several zombies before bouncing off a wall, slashing through more zombies, before rebounding back towards Coil. He slashed through another zombie as he caught the shield back on his gauntlet converting his sword to its shotgun form blasting another zombie.

                Violet had vanished into the darkness of the nearby forest chased by several zombies and swamp creatures. She jumped from branch to branch in the foliage, the sound so diffused know one could tell where she actually was. She circled around her foes, drawing her kama pistols. She stopped in the trees, let loose a volley of bullets dropping several zombies before moving on. She moved to a new position and opened fire again. She then opened the blades jumping down to the ground charging them. She slashed through a zombie’s neck taking it’s head off. She turned hooking one of the sickles behind a swamp monster’s back before slamming the back end of her other kama forcing the zombie’s neck through the blade. She turned swinging out one of her kamas flying out on its chain with the blade turning out strait along the handle. The chain went taught as it began to spin around her slashing though several zombies before she pulled it back, to throw the dagger through the chest of one of a swamp monster. The weapon pierced through the monster’s back, the blade folding down back into a kama. She used it as a hook pulling herself towards it. Using that momentum, she flew towards the creature and used her superior agility to move about the creature coiling the chain along its body. As her feet hit the ground she pulled the chain as hard as she could while pulling a secondary trigger on the pistol she still had in hand, and the chain burst into flame burning its way through the plant based body of the creature completely dicing the creature into pieces.

                She pulled the weapon back catching it in her hand, just as a group of zombies dog piled on her. Then one of the swamp monsters slammed its huge hand through the pile to crush her. However, when it pulled back only to find all that was at the bottom of the pile was a section of log. Violet was outside the pile. She flicked a switch on her pistol and the chain shortened and straightened turning the weapon into bladed staff. The swamp monster threw the log at Violet. She activated her semblance again. There was a plume of purple smoke and she was replaced by a large rock, herself having traded places with the rock. She lunged forward swinging her staff.

                Sienna was just chopping through the last swamp monster she was dealing with before looking up to the stranger in the tower who was laughing at them. “Ok, you’re on my list,” Sienna said. She converted her chainsaw Freak Show to its machinegun form. She took aim and opened fire with high caliber machinegun fire. The stranger slammed her hand on the ground forming a glyph and solid shadows erupted to shield her. However, some bullets struck the ledge under her destabilizing it, causing her to fall. She acted fast using one of her shadow glyphs to make a long shadow path she slid to the ground on. She blew a loose bang out of the way. The Stranger wasn’t laughing anymore.

                Sienna flipped her mask up asking the stranger, “Who the dust are you?” “You don’t remember me do you Ms. Sienna Scare, the Scare Queen of Beacon,” the stranger said. Sienna was a little unnerved by the amount of information this woman had, but she didn’t show it. The stranger continued, “No I suppose you wouldn’t. You were lucky, the crazy little prankster with the chainsaw with no real formal training, but you just so happened to have a knack for chopping Grimm to pieces. So, the all mighty powers decided to let you in. But not me, no they decided the formally trained member of high society with such an amazing semblance wasn’t worthy. So now there is only one alternative.” The stranger twisted the upper section of the cane drawing it out as a rapier as the shaft became a pistol. She took an offensive stance and charged at Sienna.

                Sienna jumped out of the way of the stranger’s attack opening fire on her with Freak Show, but the Stranger was fast easily out running Sienna’s fire. When Sienna ran out of bullets the stranger turned towards her using a shadow column from her semblance to launch herself at Sienna. Sienna acted fast converting Freak Show to its chainsaw form using it to block the stranger’s strike. The stranger flipped over her spinning around to strike only for Sienna to stab her saw into the ground using it to flip over the thrust. Then as her feet hit the ground, she pulled the saw trigger. The chain spun up loosening the soil and kicked the dirt into the Stranger’s eyes as she ripped the saw from the ground and swung hard. The stranger’s aura prevented the saw from cutting into her, the force was enough to send her flying.

                After landing the stranger stumbled to her feet only to have a hole open up under her. Gil jumped out of the hole turning and firing a grenade into the hole blowing her out like a cannon. The stranger managed to right herself midair landing on her feet and slammed her hand against the ground summoning two swamp monsters to help her. Gil moved fast swinging his pickaxe stabbing it into one of them and swung it over his head slamming it into the ground. He flipped over the creature tearing out the pick putting the grenade launcher barrel to the other monster’s chest firing a fire dust grenade burning it to a cinder. He then converted the weapon Gold Rush into a shovel swinging it at the stranger. She deflected the shovel’s edge down her rapier coming around to shoot him in the chest causing him to back off a step before slashing at him. He dodged the slash swinging the shovel at her. She swung up her pistol converting it back to its full shaft and a sickle blade swung out of the end. The shovel got caught in the edge and was guided into the ground. She swung her rapier slashing at Gil’s hands. He jumped back letting go of his shovel. He activated his semblance diving into a hole. The stranger prepared herself for him to surface, her eyes darting about looking for evidence of wear. However, she was shocked when the hole opened below her. Gil jumped out through the dust with Gold Rush. “Switch out,” he yelled jumping away.

                The stranger jumped out of the hole looking to Gil when Coil’s shield struck her knocking her off balance. It bounced around and back to him as he charged at her swinging his sword. She blocked it against her rapier before hooking her sickle over his shoulder pulling him down slamming her knee in his chest before spinning back around with her pistol shooting at him only for Coil to block it off his shield. He dropped his shield to fire his shotgun, but the stranger flipped out of the way. She formed a glyph and several shadow tendrils leapt out of it at Coil. He opened the claw on his shield catching them all in the claw. He pulled the trigger for the SMG in the shield blasting the tendrils in the claw causing them to dematerialize before following through with a slash of his sword which she deflected. He bashed her with his shield before delivering a shotgun blast knocking her back further.

                “She’s mine,” Violet called out as her kamas hooked onto the stranger pulling her back towards her. The Stranger forced her way out of the chains and Violet pulled them back. The stranger charged her stabbing repeatedly at her as Violet deflected each thrust before deflecting the rapier far enough away to strike at her. The stranger back off a bit taking aim with her pistol. Violet quickly spun around one of her kamas blocking the shots before she flung out one of her kamas, the chain coiling around the stranger’s arm holding the pistol. She pulled hard causing the stranger to shoot into the ground as she stumbled towards Violet. She swung her other kama slashing her as her other sickle came loose. She converted her weapon Lotus Edge to its staff form. She started spinning it quickly striking quickly multiple times causing the stranger to jump back away before she dropped her rapier and to her knees as her aura fluctuated.

 

                The members off teams GRVS and RWBY lined up, slowly advancing on the stranger loading more ammo into their weapons. “I think this is over,” Gil said. “Just give it up,” Coil added. The stranger gritted her teeth. “No, no, NO!” she yelled out as several new kind of glyph formed unleashing a barrage of ghostly figures at them. These ghosts slammed into the members of the two teams depleting their auras causing them to drop to their knees. The Stranger started laughing, “You see! I am the superior huntress! I have superior power, but that poor excuse for a teacher said I wasn’t worthy!” She kept cackling not noticing a small storm cloud floating around behind her. “He’ll pay for what he did to me! He’ll beg for mercy wishing he had let me in! He’ll…” Suddenly there was a flash of lightning and thunder and Matt appeared between the Stranger and the two teams, his twin SMGs drawn.

                “You know this is exactly why we turned you down Yolanda,” Matt said in a matter of fact tone. “You will address me by my title, baroness!” Yolanda said in anger. Matt shook his head, “You need sanity to have a title.” That sent her over the edge. She screamed in anger. Matt used this to charge her firing. She reacted quick throwing up a wall of shadow to block his bullets. Matt countered converting himself to lightning circling around the wall and slashing at her sending Yolanda flying. He didn’t stop, bolting up to her delivering a barrage of slashes before dropping his swords and unpacking his gauntlets and grieves delivering a flurry of claw slashes and shotgun blasts finishing with a right hook slamming her into the wall of the abandon dorm so hard it collapsed followed by the systematic collapse of the rest of the building. When the dust cleared, Yolanda was unconscious, half buried in ruble. “Yeah Matt!” Ruby cheered. Matt turned to look at them. He wasn’t happy.

                After the police had carted off Yolanda and Matt got chewed out by Goodwitch for leveling a campus building, teams GRVS and RWBY found Matt in the Hunter’s Den with a drink in front of the fireplace. They just sat at a table behind him starring at him. They had never really met a person that truly hatted Matt on such a personal level. Matt resituated himself in his seat. He didn’t turn to face them, just starring into the flame as he said, “Come on ask it.” Both his current and former students flinched. “come on sit down and ask,” he added waving them over.

                They sat down on the couches around the fire, all intensely focused on Matt. “Her name is Yolanda Samedi. She’s the daughter of a wealthy Baron from Mistral. Rich brat, and I mean in a bad way, not a Weiss way,” Matt said. “Hey!” Weiss retorted for the off-hand insult. Matt waved her off and continued, “Raised wanting for nothing, she grew into one of those bored rich girls. You know, the kind that have used their money to do everything until they get bored. So, she decided the next step was to be a huntress. She hired the best combat trainers, bought the best equipment, and spent two years training. However, she was turned down by the other three schools, so she came to Beacon.” “So, what was wrong with her?” Yang asked. “In a word, she’s nuts,” he said. “That’s two words,” Coil said. “I’m serious, she’s certifiable. She’s obsessed with the occult, she has no respect for other people, and she’s a complete sadist.” “Yeah, she did seem a little witch doctor with that hate shrine of hers,” Sienna said. “There’s more. During her application evaluation, she was put in a ring with a Beowolf,” Matt started. “She couldn’t beat it?” Ruby asked. “Worse, she shot out all the lights and started circling the beast in the shadows. She started by cutting off its paws, then its limbs, before she slashed up its torso. Only when it stopped flailing did she kill it, when it stopped fighting, when it wasn’t fun for her anymore,” he said. “That’s sick,” Blake said. “Well you should have seen her during the campus tour. When we got to the dorms she asked how big her private room would be, just assuming she got one. When she was told she would have to share a room with her team, and this is in her words, ‘Oh well then daddy will just make a donation. We’ll just level these ugly old dorms and build me a little mansion,’ not giving a care in Remnant about the other students. Not to mention as if we could simply be bought like that. Then she started talking about staff, butlers, servants. At least Weiss has a sense of independence, even if she did bring a few dozen to many bags,” Matt said. “Hey,” Weiss retorted.

                “So, what happened?” Ruby asked. “Clearly, she didn’t get into Beacon,” Weiss said. “Well there’s more. When she was denied, she found me and asked why, and in my usual blunt nature I told her the truth. I told her she was a psycho with no respect for anyone or anything, and that she should go back to her fat cat mansion. Well that really ticked her off. The second I was done she tried to kill me. When that failed, started terrorizing the school. Every couple of months she shoes up and terrorizes the students to spite me. I’ve been trying for years to catch her, but I could never figure out where she kept disappearing to. Well at least now I don’t have to deal with her again,” Matt said.

* * *

 

                Yolanda sat in a police car on her way to the station when it suddenly skidded to a halt. The officers got out and there was a hail of gunfire and blade slashes before going quiet. After a moment, the door opened, and Cinder Fall took a seat next to Yolanda, Emerald and Mercury just outside. “Well you appear to be a difficult position. I can help you out, and get revenge on professor Vert,” Cinder said. Yolanda smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment, kudo, and bookmark. I'm always looking for external feedback on how to improve.


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